PAUL  AS  A  CHIEF'S   SON. 


[See  p.  87. 


WHO  WAS  PAUL  GRAYSON? 


BY 

JOHN    HABBERTON 

AUTHOR  OF  "  HELEN'S  BABIES  "  ETC. 


ILLUSTRATED 


NEW    YORK 
HARPER    &    BROTHERS,    FRANKLIN    SQUARE 

1881 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1881,  by 

HARPER    &    BROTHERS, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


All  rights  reserved. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I.  PAGE 

THE  NEW  PUPIL 9 

CHAPTER  II. 
THE  FIGHT 22 

CHAPTER  III. 
Music  AND  MANNEBS 35 

CHAPTER  IV. 
WHO  WILL  TELL? 50 

CHAPTER  V. 
THOSE  JAIL-BIRDS 65 

CHAPTER  VI. 
THE  BEANTASSEL  BENEFIT 78 

CHAPTER  VII. 
A  BEAUTIFUL  THEOBY  RUINED    ,  90 


2136191 


6  Contents. 

CHAPTER  VHI. 
DARED 103 

CHAPTER  IX. 
BENNY'S  PARTY 117 

CHAPTER  X. 
RECAPTURED 130 

CHAPTER  XI. 
THE  TRIAL 143 

CHAPTER  XII. 
THE  END  OP  IT  ......  .  158 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


FACT 

Paul  as  a  Chiefs  Son Frontispiece 

Paul  Grayson 13 

Just  in  Time  to  see  Grayson  give  Bert  a  Blow  on  the  Chest      .     .    27 

The  Reconciliation 31 

Attack  on  the  Organ-grinder 47 

Benny  Mallow  in  the  Barn 53 

11  Mr.  Morton,  I  was  there'1'1 61 

The  Window  of  the  Counterfeiter's  Cell 75 

"You're  a  Chiefs  Son,  aren't  you?'1'' 97 

Paul  G-rayson  and  Benny  Mallow 115 

" De  Counterfeiter  done  IroTce  out  oo  de  Jail" 125 

Paul  and  the  Counterfeiter 137 

The  Sheriff  enforces  Order 149 

"Father!" 155 

The  Meeting  in  the  School-yard 161 


WHO  WAS  PAUL  GRAYSON? 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  NEW  PUPIL. 

HE  boys  who  attended  Mr.  Morton's  Select 
School  in  the  village  of  Laketon  did  not  pro- 
fess to  know  more  than  boys  of  the  same  age 
and  advantages  elsewhere;  but  of  one  thing  they 
were  absolutely  certain,  and  that  was  that  no  teach- 
er ever  rang  his  bell  to  assemble  the  school  or  call 
the  boys  in  from  recess  until  just  that  particular  in- 
stant when  the  fun  in  the  school -yard  was  at  its 
highest,  and  the  boys  least  wanted  to  come  in.  A 
teacher  might  be  very  fair  about  some  things:  he 
might  help  a  boy  through  a  hard  lesson,  or  give  him 
fewer  bad  marks  than  he  had  earned ;  he  might  even 


io  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son? 

forget  to  report  to  a  boy's  parents  all  the  cases  of 
truancy  in  which  their  son  had  indulged ;  but  when 
a  teacher  once  laid  his  hand  upon  that  dreadful  bell 
and  stepped  to  the  window,  it  really  seemed  as  if 
every  particle  of  human  sympathy  went  out  of  him. 
On  one  bright  May  morning,  however,  the  boys 
who  made  this  regular  daily  complaint  were  few; 
indeed,  all  of  them,  except  Bert  Sharp,  who  had  three 
consecutive  absences  to  explain,  and  no  written  ex- 
cuse from  his  father  to  help  him  out,  were  already 
inside  the  school-room,  and  even  Bert  stood  where 
he  could  look  through  the  open  door  while  he  cud- 
gelled his  wits  and  smothered  his  conscience  in  the 
endeavor  to  frame  an  explanation  that  might  seem 
plausible.  The  boys  already  inside  lounged  near 
any  desks  but  their  own,  and  conversed  in  low  tones 
about  almost  everything  except  the  subject  upper- 
most in  their  minds,  this  subject  being  a  handsome 
but  rather  sober-looking  boy  of  about  fourteen  years, 
who  was  seated  at  a  desk  in  the  back  part  of  the 
room,  and  trying,  without  any  success  whatever,  to 


The  New  Pupil.  1 1 

look  as  if  he  did  not  know  that  all  the  other  boys 
were  looking  at  him. 

It  was  not  at  all  wonderful  that  the  boys  stared, 
for  none  of  them  had  ever  before  seen  the  new  pupil, 
and  Laketon  was  so  small  a  town  that  the  appear- 
ance of  a  strange  boy  was  almost  as  unusual  an  event 
as  the  coming  of  a  circus. 

"Let's  give  it  up,"  said  Will  Palmer,  who  had  for 
five  minutes  been  discussing  with  several  other  boys 
all  sorts  of  improbabilities  about  the  origin  of  the 
new  pupil ;  "  let's  give  it  up  until  roll-call ;  then  we'll 
learn  his  name,  and  that  '11  be  a  little  comfort." 

"  I  wish  Mr.  Morton  would  hurry,  then,"  said  Ben- 
ny Mallow.  "  I  came  early  this  morning  to  see  if  I 
couldn't  win  back  my  striped  alley  from  Ned  John- 
ston, and  this  business  has  kept  us  from  playing  a 
single  game.  Quick,  boys,  quick !  Mr.  Morton's  get- 
ting ready  to  touch  the  bell." 

The  group  separated  in  an  instant,  and  every 
member  was  seated  before  the  bell  struck;  so  were 
most  of  the  other  boys,  and  so  many  pairs  of  eyes 


1 2  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son  ? 

looked  inquiringly  at  the  teacher  that  Mr.  Morton 
himself  had  to  bite  his  lower  lip  very  hard  to  keep 
from  laughing  as  he  formally  rang  the  school  to  or- 
der. As  the  roll  was  called,  the  boys  answered  to 
their  names  in  a  prompt,  sharp,  business-like  way, 
quite  unusual  in  school-rooms;  and  as  the  call  pro- 
ceeded, the  responses  became  so  quick  as  to  some- 
times get  a  little  ahead  of  the  names  that  the  boys 
knew  were  coming. 

Suddenly,  as  the  names  beginning  with  G  were 
reached,  and  Charlie  Gunter  had  his  mouth  wide 
open,  ready  to  say  "  Here,"  the  teacher  called,  "  Paul 
Grayson." 

"  Here !"  answered  the  new  boy. 

A  slight  sensation  ran  through  the  school ;  no  boy 
did  anything  for  which  he  had  to  be  called  to  order, 
yet  somehow  the  turning  of  heads,  the  catching  of 
breath,  and  the  letting  go  of  breath  that  had  been 
held  in  longer  than  usual,  made  a  slight  commotion, 
which  reached  the  ears  of  the  strange  pupil,  and 
made  him  look  rather  more  ill  at  ease  than  before. 


PAUL  GRAYSON. 


The  New  Pupil.  15 

The  answers  to  the  roll  became  at  once  less  spirited ; 
indeed,  Benny  Mallow  was  staring  so  hard,  now  that 
he  had  a  name  to  increase  his  interest  in  the  stran- 
ger, that  he  forgot  entirely  to  answer  to  his  name, 
and  was  compelled  to  sit  on  the  chair  beside  the 
teacher's  desk  from  that  moment  until  recess. 

That  recess  seemed  longer  in  coming  than  any 
other  that  the  school  had  ever  known — longer  even 
than  that  memorable  one  in  which  a  strolling  trio  of 
Italian  musicians  had  been  specially  contracted  with 
to  begin  playing  in  the  school-yard  the  moment  the 
boys  came  down.  Finally,  however,  the  bell  rang 
half-past  ten,  and  the  whole  roomful  hurried  down- 
stairs, but  not  before  Mr.  Morton  had  called  Joe  Ap- 
pleby,  the  largest  boy  in  school,  and  formally  intro- 
duced Paul  Grayson,  with  the  expressed  wish  that 
he  should  make  his  new  companion  feel  at  home 
among  the  boys. 

Appleby  went  about  his  work  with  an  air  that 
showed  how  fully  he  realized  the  importance  of  his 
position :  he  introduced  Grayson  to  every  boy,  be- 


1 6  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son? 

ginning  with  the  largest;  and  it  was  in  vain  that 
Benny  Mallow,  who  was  the  youngest  of  the  party, 
made  all  sorts  of  excuses  to  throw  himself  in  the 
way  of  the  distinguished  couple,  even  to  the  extent 
of  once  getting  his  feet  badly  mixed  up  with  those 
of  Grayson.  When,  however,  the  ceremony  ended, 
and  Appleby  was  at  liberty,  so  many  of  the  boys 
crowded  around  him  that  the  new  pupil  was  in  some 
danger  of  being  lonely. 

"Find  out  for  yourselves,"  was  Appleby's  dignified 
reply  to  his  questioners.  "I  don't  consider  it  gen- 
tlemanly to  tell  everything  I  know  about  a  man." 

At  this  rebuke  the  smaller  boys  considered  Apple- 
by a  bigger  man  than  ever  before,  but  some  of  the 
larger  ones  hinted  that  Appleby  couldn't  very  well 
tell  what  he  didn't  know,  at  which  Appleby  took  of- 
fence, and  joined  the  group  of  boys  who  were  leaning 
against  a  fence,  in  the  shade  of  which  Will  Palmer 
had  already  inveigled  the  new  boy  into  conversation. 

"  By-the-way,"  said  Will,  "  there's  time  yet  for  a 
game  or  two  of  ball.  Will  you  play  ?" 


The  New  Pupil.  17 

"  Yes,  I'll  be  glad  to,"  said  Grayson. 

"Who  else?"  asked  Will. 

"  I !"  shouted  all  of  the  boys,  who  did  not  forget 
their  grammar  so  far  as  to  say  "  Me !"  instead.  Keally, 
the  eagerness  of  the  boys  to  play  ball  had  never  be- 
fore been  equalled  in  the  memory  of  any  one  present, 
and  Will  Palmer  cooled  off  some  quite  warm  friends 
by  his  inability  to  choose  more  than  two  boys  to 
complete  the  quartette  for  a  common  game  of  ball. 
It  did  the  disappointed  boys  a  great  deal  of  good 
to  hear  the  teacher's  bell  ring  just  as  Will  Palmer 
"  caught  himself  in  "  to  Grayson's  bat. 

"You  play  a  splendid  game,"  said  Will  to  Gray- 
son,  as  they  went  up-stairs  side  by  side.  "  Where 
did  you  learn  it  ?" 

Joe  Appleby,  who  was  on  the  step  in  front  of  the 
couple,  dragged  just  an  instant  in  order  to  catch  the 
expected  information,  but  all  he  got  was  a  bump 
from  Palmer  that  nearly  tumbled  him  forward  on 
his  dignified  nose,  as  Grayson  answered, 

"  Oh,  in  several  places ;  nowhere  in  particular." 


1 8  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son  ? 

Palmer  immediately  determined  that  he  would 
follow  his  new  schoolmate  home  at  noon,  and  dis- 
cover where  he  lived.  Then  he  would  interview  the 
neighbors,  and  try  to  get  some  information  ahead  of 
that  stuck-up  Joe  Appleby,  who,  considering  he  was 
only  four  months  older  than  Palmer  himself,  put  on 
too  many  airs  for  anything.  But  when  school  was 
dismissed,  Palmer  was  disgusted  at  noting  that  at 
least  half  of  the  other  boys  were  distributing  them- 
selves for  just  such  an  operation  as  the  one  he  had 
planned.  Besides,  Grayson  did  not  come  down-stairs 
with  the  crowd.  Could  it  be  possible  that  he  was 
from  the  country,  and  had  brought  a  cold  lunch  to 
school  with  him?  Palmer  hurried  up  the  stairs  to 
see,  but  met  the  teacher  and  the  new  boy  coming 
down,  and  the  two  walked  away,  and  together  en- 
tered the  house  of  old  Mrs.  Bartle,  where  Mr.  Morton 
boarded. 

"  He's  a  boarding  scholar,"  exclaimed  Benny  Mal- 
low. "  I've  read  of  such  things  in  books." 

"  Then  he'll  be  stuck  up,"  declared  Joe  Appleby. 


The  New  Pupil.  19 

This  opinion  was  delivered  with  a  shake  of  the 
head  that  seemed  to  intimate  that  Joe  had  known 
all  the  ways  of  boarding  -  scholars  for  thousands  of 
years ;  so  most  of  the  boys  looked  quite  sober  for  a 
moment  or  two.  Finally  Sam  Wardwell,  whose  fa- 
ther kept  a  store,  broke  the  silence  by  remarking, 
"  I'll  bet  he's  from  Boston ;  his  coat  is  of  just  the 
same  stuff  as  one  that  a  drummer  wears  who  comes 
to  see  father  sometimes." 

"  Umph !"  grunted  Appleby ;  "  do  you  suppose 
Boston  has  some  kinds  of  cloth  all  to  itself?  You 
don't  know  much." 

The  smaller  boys  seemed  to  side  with  the  senior 
pupil  in  this  opinion ;  so  Sam  felt  very  uncomforta- 
ble, and  vowed  silently  that  he  would  bring  a  piece 
of  chalk  to  school  that  very  afternoon,  and  do  some 
rapid  sketching  on  the  back  of  Appleby's  own  coat. 
Then  Benny  Mallow  said :  "  Say,  boys,  this  old  school 
must  be  a  pretty  good  one,  after  all,  if  people  some- 
where else  send  boarders  to  it.  His  folks  must  be 
rich :  did  you  notice  what  a  splendid  knife  he  cut 


2O  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son  ? 

his  finger-nails  with? — 'twas  a  four-blader,  with  a 
pearl  handle.  But  of  course  you  didn't  see  it,  and 
I  did ;  he  used  it  in  school,  and  my  desk  is  right  be- 
side his." 

Will  Palmer  immediately  led  Benny  aside,  and 
offered  him  a  young  fan-tail  pigeon,  when  his  long- 
expected  brood  was  hatched,  to  change  desks,  if  the 
teacher's  permission  could  be  obtained.  Meanwhile 
Napoleon  Nott,  who  generally  was  called  Notty,  and 
who  had  more  imagination  than  all  the  rest  of  the 
boys  combined,  remarked,  "  I  believe  he's  a  foreign 
prince  in  disguise." 

"He's  well-bred,  anyhow,"  said  Will  Palmer  fo 
Benny  Mallow.  "I  hope  he'll  be  man  enough  to 
stand  no  nonsense.  He's  big  enough,  and  smart 
enough,  if  looks  go  for  anything,  to  run  this  school, 
and  I'd  like  to  see  him  do  it — anything  to  get  rid  of 
Joe  Appleby's  airs." 

Then  the  various  groups  separated,  moved  by  the 
appetites  that  boys  in  good  health  always  have. 
One  boy,  however — Joe  Appleby — was  man  enough 


The  New  Pupil.  2 1 

to  deny  his  palate  when  greater  interests  devolved 
upon  him,  so  he  made  some  excuse  to  go  back  to  the 
school-room,  so  as  to  be  there  when  the  teacher  and 
his  new  charge  returned.  Half  an  hour  later  Benny 
Mallow,  who  had  sneaked  away  from  home  as  soon 
as  the  dessert  had  been  brought  in,  and  had  vulgarly 
eaten  his  pie  as  he  walked  along  the  street — Benny 
Mallow  walked  into  the  school-room,  and  beheld  the 
teacher,  Joe  Appleby,  and  Paul  Grayson  standing  to- 
gether as  if  they  had  been  talking.  As  Benny  went 
to  his  seat  Joe  followed  him,  and  bestowed  upon 
him  a  look  of  such  superiority  that  Benny  deter- 
mined at  once  that  some  marvellous  mystery  must 
have  been  revealed,  and  that  Joe  was  the  custodian 
of  the  entire  thing.  Benny  was  so  full  of  this  fancy 
that  he  slipped  down -stairs  and  told  it  as  fact  to 
each  boy  who  appeared,  the  result  being  to  make 
Joe  Appleby  a  greater  man  than  ever  in  the  eyes  of 
the  school,  while  Grayson  became  a  tormenting  yet 
most  invaluable  mystery. 


22  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son? 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  FIGHT. 

HE  afternoon  session  of  Mr.  Morton's  Select 
School  was  but  little  more  promising  of  reve- 
lations about  the  new  boy  than  the  morning 
had  been.  Most  of  the  boys  returned  earlier  than 
usual  from  their  respective  dinners,  and  either  hung 
about  the  school-room,  staring  at  their  new  compan- 
ion, or  waited  at  the  foot  of  the  stairs  for  him  to 
come  down.  The  attentions  of  the  first-named  divi- 
sion soon  became  so  distasteful  to  the  new-comer  that 
he  left  the  room  abruptly,  and  went  down  the  stair- 
way two  steps  at  a  time.  At  the  door  he  found  lit- 
tle Benny  Mallow  looking  up  admiringly,  and  deter- 
mining to  practice  that  particular  method  of  coming 
down  •  stairs  the  first  Saturday  that  he  could  creep 


The  Fight.  23 

unnoticed  through   a   school -room   window.      But 

o 

Benny  was  not  one  of  those  foolish  boys  who  forget 
the  present  while  planning  about  the  future.  Paul 
Grayson  had  barely  reached  the  bottom  step  when 
little  Benny  looked  innocently  up  into  his  face,  and 
remarked,  "  Say !" 

"  Well  ?"  Paul  answered. 

"You're  the  biggest  boy  in  school,"  continued 
Benny.  "I  noticed  it  when  you  stood  beside  Ap- 
pleby." 

Grayson  looked  as  if  he  did  not  exactly  see  that 
the  matter  was  worthy  of  special  remark. 

"I,"  said  Benny,  "am  the  smallest  boy — I  am, 
really.  If  you  don't  believe  it,  look  at  the  other 
boys.  I'll  just  run  down  the  steps,  and  stand  beside 
some  of  them." 

"  Don't  take  that  trouble,"  said  Grayson,  pleasant- 
ly. "  But  what  is  there  remarkable  about  my  height 
and  your  shortness  ?" 

"  Oh,  nothing,"  said  Benny,  looking  down  with 
some  embarrassment,  and  then  looking  up  again — 


24  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son  ? 

"  only  I  thought  maybe  'twas  a  good  reason  why  we 
should  be  friends." 

"  Why,  so  it  is,  little  fellow,"  said  Grayson.  "  I 
was  very  stupid  not  to  understand  that  without  be- 
ing told." 

"All  right,  then,"  said  Benny,  evidently  much  re- 
lieved in  mind.  "Anything  you  want  to  know  I'll 
tell  you — anything  that  I  know  myself,  that  is.  Be- 
cause I'm  little,  you  mustn't  think  I  don't  know  ev- 
erything about  this  town,  because  I  do.  I  know 
where  you  can  fish  for  bass  in  a  place  that  no  other 
boy  knows  anything  about:  what  do  you  think  of 
that  ?  I  know  a  big  black- walnut  tree  that  no  other 
boy  ever  saw ;  of  course  there's  no  nuts  on  it  now, 
but  you  can  see  last  year's  husks  if  you  like.  Have 
you  got  a  sister  ?" 

Grayson  suddenly  looked  quite  sober,  and  answer- 
ed, "No." 

"I  have,"  said  Benny,  "and  she  is  the  nicest  girl 
in  town.  If  you  want  to  know  some  of  the  bigger 
girls,  I  suppose  you'll  have  to  ask  Appleby.  What's 


The  Fight.  25 

the  use  of  big  girls,  though  ?  They  never  play  mar- 
bles with  a  fellow,  or  have  anything  to  trade.  Say 
— I  hope  yoiHre  not  too  big  to  play  marbles  ?" 

"Oh  no,"  said  Gray  son ;  "  I'll  buy  some,  and  we'll 
have  a  royal  game." 

"  Don't  do  it,"  said  Benny ;  "  I've  got  a  pocketful. 
Come  on."  And  to  the  great  disgust  of  all  the 
larger  boys  Benny  led  his  new  friend  into  the  school- 
yard, scratched  a  ring  on  the  dirt,  divided  his  stock 
of  marbles  into  two  equal  portions,  and  gave  one  to 
Grayson ;  then  both  boys  settled  themselves  at  a 
most  exciting  game,  while  all  the  others  looked  on 
in  wonder,  with  which  considerable  envy  and  jeal- 
ousy were  mixed  up. 

"  That  Benny  Mallow  is  putting  on  more  airs  than 
so  little  a  fellow  can  carry;  don't  you  think  so?" 
said  Sam  Wardwell  to  Ned  Johnston. 

"  I  should  say  so,"  was  the  reply ;  "  and  that  isn't 
all.  The  new  fellow  isn't  going  to  be  thought  much 
of  in  this  school  if  he's  going  to  allow  himself  to  be- 
long to  any  youngster  that  chooses  to  take  hold  of 


26  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son  ? 

him.  I'll  tell  you  one  thing:  Joe  Appleby's  birth- 
day party  is  to  come  off  in  a  few  days,  and  I'll  bet 
you  a  fish-line  to  a  button  that  Master  Benny  won't 
get  near  enough  to  it  to  smell  the  ice-cream.  How 
will  that  make  the  little  upstart  feel  ?" 

"Awful — perfectly  awful,"  said  Sam,  who,  being 
very  fond  of  ice-cream  himself,  could  not  imagine  a 
more  terrible  revenge  than  Ned  had  suggested.  Just 
then  Bert  Sharp  sauntered  up  with  his  hands  in  his 
pockets,  his  head  craned  forward  as  usual,  and  his 
eyes  trying  to  get  along  faster  than  his  head. 

"  See  here,"  said  he,  "  if  that  new  boy  boards  with 
the  teacher,  he's  going  to  tell  everything  he  knows. 
I  think  somebody  ought  to  let  him  know  what  he'll 
get  if  he  tries  that  little  game.  I'm  not  going  to 
be  told  on :  I  have  a  rough  enough  time  of  it  now." 
Bert  spoke  feelingly,  for  he  was  that  afternoon  to 
remain  at  school  until  he  had  recited  from  memory 
four  pages  of  history,  as  a  punishment  for  his  long 
truancy. 

"  Who's  going  to  tell  him,  though  ?"  asked  Sam. 


JUST  IN  TIME  TO  SEE  GRAYSON  GIVE  BENT  A  BLOW  IN  THE  CHEST. 


The  Fight.  29 

"It  should  be  some  fellow  big  enough  to  take  care 
of  himself,  for  Grayson  looks  as  if  he  could  be  lively." 
"  I'll  do  it  myself,"  declared  Bert,  savagely ;  saying 
which  he  lounged  over  toward  the  ring  at  which 
Benny  and  Grayson  were  playing.  The  boys  had 
seen  Bert  in  such  a  mood  before,  so  at  once  there 
was  some  whispered  cautions  to  look  out  for  a  fight. 
Before  Bert  had  been  a  minute  beside  the  ring, 
Grayson  accidentally  brushed  against  him  as,  half 
stooping,  he  followed  his  alley  across  the  ring.  Bert 
immediately  got  his  hands  out  of  his  pockets,  and 
struck  Grayson  a  blow  on  the  back  of  the  neck  that 
felled  him  to  the  ground.  All  the  boys  immediately 
rushed  to  the  spot,  but  before  they  had  reached  it 
the  new  pupil  was  on  his  feet;  and  the  teacher 
reached  the  window,  bell  in  hand,  just  in  time  to  see 
Grayson  give  Bert  a  blow  on  the  chest  that  caused 
the  young  man  to  go  reeling  backward,  and  yell 
"  Oh !"  at  the  top  of  his  voice.  Then  the  bell  rang 
violently,  and  all  of  the  boys  but  Bert  Sharp  hurried 
up-stairs,  Grayson  not  even  taking  the  trouble  to 


3O  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son  ? 

look  behind  him.  In  the  scramble  toward  the  seats 
Will  Palmer  found  a  chance  to  whisper  to  Ned 
Johnston,  "  There's  no  nonsense  about  him,  eh  2" 

And  Ned  replied,  "  He's  splendid  !" 

All  of  the  boys  seemed  of  Ned's  opinion,  for  when 
Mr.  Morton,  just  as  Bert  Sharp  entered,  rang  the 
school  to  order,  and  asked,  "  Who  began  that  fight  ?" 
there  was  a  general  reply  of,  "  Bert  Sharp." 

"Sharp,  Grayson,  step  to  the  front,"  commanded 
the  teacher. 

Bert  shuffled  forward  with  a  very  sullen  face, 
while  Grayson  stalked  up  so  bravely  that  Benny 
Mallow  risked  getting  a  mark  by  kicking  Sam 
Wardwell's  feet  under  the  desk  to  attract  his  atten- 
tion, and  then  whispering,  "  Just  look  at  that !" 

Before  the  teacher  could  speak  to  either  of  the 
two  boys  in  front  of  him,  Grayson  said,  "  I'm  very 
sorry,  sir,  but  I  was  knocked  down  for  nothing,  un- 
less it  was  brushing  against  him  by  mistake." 

"  Was  that  the  cause,  Sharp  ?"  asked  Mr.  Morton. 

Bert  hung  his  head  a  little  lower,  which  is  a  way 


THE  RECONCILIATION. 


The  Fight.  33 

that  all  boys  have  when  they  are  in  the  wrong ;  so  the 
teacher  did  not  question  him  any  farther,  but  said : 

"  Boys,  Grayson  is  a  stranger  here.  I  know  him 
to  be  a  boy  of  good  habits  and  manners,  and  I  give 
you  my  word  that  if  you  have  any  trouble  with  him, 
you  will  have  to  begin  it  yourselves.  And  if  you 
expect  to  be  gentlemen  when  you  grow  up,  you  must 
learn  now  to  treat  strangers  as  you  would  like  to 
be  treated  if  away  from  your  own  homes.  Grayson, 
Sharp,  go  to  your  seats." 

"  May  I  speak  to  Sharp,  sir  ?"  asked  Grayson. 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  Morton. 

"  I'm  sorry  I  hit  you,"  said  the  new  boy.  "  Will 
you  shake  hands  and  be  friends  ?" 

Bert  looked  up  suspiciously  without  raising  his 
head,  but  Grayson's  hand  was  outstretched,  and  as 
Bert  did  not  know  what  else  to  do,  he  put  out  his 
own  hand;  and  then  the  two  late  enemies  returned 
to  their  seats,  Bert  looking  less  bad-tempered  than 
usual,  and  Grayson  looking  quite  sober. 

Somehow  at  the  afternoon  recess  every  boy  treated 

3 


34  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son  ? 

Grayson  as  if  he  had  known  him  for  years,  and  no 
one  seemed  to  be  jealous  when  Grayson  invited  Bert 
to  play  marbles  with  him,  and  insisted  on  his  late 
adversary  taking  the  first  shot.  But  the  teacher's 
remarks  about  Grayson  had  only  increased  the  cu- 
riosity of  the  boys  about  their  new  comrade,  and 
when  Sam  Ward  well  remarked  that  old  Mrs.  Bar- 
tie,  with  whom  the  teacher  and  his  pupil  boarded, 
bought  groceries  nearly  every  evening  at  his  father's 
store,  and  he  would  just  lounge  about  during  the 
rest  of  the  afternoon  and  ask  her  about  Grayson 
when  she  came  in,  at  least  six  other  boys  offered  to 
sit  on  a  board-pile  near  the  store  and  wait  for  infor- 
mation. 

As  for  Grayson,  he  sat  in  the  school-room  writing 
while  the  teacher  waited,  for  more  than  an  hour  after 
the  general  dismissal,  to  hear  Bert  Sharp  recite  those 
detestable  four  pages  of  history,  and  Bert  was  a  great 
deal  slower  at  his  task  than  he  would  have  been  if 
he  had  not  had  to  wonder  why  Grayson  had  to  do 
so  much  writing. 


Music  and  Manners.  35 


CHAPTER  III. 

MUSIC  AND  MANNERS. 

HE  boys  at  Mr.  Morton's  Select  School  were 
not  the  only  people  at  Laketon  who  were 
curious  about  Paul  Grayson.  Although  the 
men  and  women  had  daily  duties  like  those  of  men 
and  women  elsewhere,  they  found  a  great  deal  of 
time  in  which  to  think  and  talk  about  other  peo- 
ple and  their  affairs.  So  all  the  boys  who  attended 
the  school  were  interrogated  so  often  about  their 
new  comrade,  that  they  finally  came  to  consider 
themselves  as  being  in  some  way  a  part  of  the 
mystery. 

Mr.  Morton,  who  had  opened  his  school  only  sev- 
eral weeks  before  the  appearance  of  Grayson,  was 
himself  unknown  at  Laketon  until  that  spring,  when, 
after  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  be  made  principal 


36  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son? 

of  the  grammar-school,  he  had  hired  the  upper  floor 
of  what  once  had  been  a  store  building,  and  opened 
a  school  on  his  own  account.  He  had  introduced 
himself  by  letters  that  the  school  trustees  and  Mr. 
Merivale,  pastor  of  one  of  the  village  churches,  con- 
sidered very  good ;  but  now  that  Grayson's  appear- 
ance was  explained  only  by  the  teacher's  statement 
that  the  boy  was  son  of  an  old  school  friend  who 
was  now  a  widower,  some  of  the  trustees  wished  they 
were  able  to  remember  the  names  and  addresses 
appended  to  the  letters  that  the  new  teacher  had 
presented.  Sam  Wardwell's  father  having  learned 
from  Mr.  Morton  where  last  he  had  taught,  went 
so  far  as  to  write  to  the  wholesale  merchants  with 
whom  he  dealt,  in  New  York,  for  the  name  of  some 
customer  in  Mr.  Morton's  former  town ;  but  even  by 
making  the  most  of  this  roundabout  method  of  in- 
quiry he  only  learned  that  the  teacher  had  been 
highly  respected,  although  nothing  was  known  of  his 
antecedents. 

With  one  of  the  town  theories  on  the  subject  of 


Music  and  Manners.  37 

Mr.  Morton  and  Paul  Grayson  the  boys  entirely  dis- 
agreed :  this  was  that  the  teacher  and  the  boy  were 
father  and  son. 

"  I  don't  think  grown  people  are  so  very  smart, 
after  all,"  said  Sam  Wardwell,  one  day,  as  the  boys 
who  were  not  playing  lounged  in  the  shade  of  the 
school •  building  and  chatted.  "They  talk  about 
Grayson  being  Mr.  Morton's  son.  Why,  who  ever 
saw  Grayson  look  a  bit  afraid  of  the  teacher  ?" 

"  Nobody,"  replied  Ned  Johnston,  and  no  one  con- 
tradicted him,  although  Bert  Sharp  suggested  that 
there  were  other  boys  in  the  world  who  were  not 
afraid  of  their  fathers — himself  for  instance. 

"Then  you  ought  to  be,"  said  Benny  Mallow. 
Benny  looked  off  at  nothing  in  particular  for  a  mo- 
ment, and  then  continued, "  I  wish  I  had  a  father  to 
be  afraid  of." 

There  was  a  short  silence  after  this,  for  as  no  other 
boy  in  the  group  had  lost  a  father,  no  one  knew 
exactly  what  to  say;  besides,  a  big  tear  began  to 
trickle  down  Benny's  face,  and  all  the  boys  saw  it, 


38  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son? 

although  Benny  dropped  his  head  as  much  as  pos- 
sible. Finally,  however,  Ned  Johnston  stealthily 
patted  Benny  on  the  back,  and  then  Sam  Wardwell, 
taking  a  fine  winter  apple  from  his  pocket,  broke  it 
in  two,  and  extended  half  of  it,  with  the  remark, 
"Halves,  Benny." 

Benny  said, "  Thank  you,"  and  seemed  to  take  a 
great  deal  of  comfort  out  of  that  piece  of  apple,  while 
the  .other  boys,  who  knew  how  fond  Sam  was  of  all 
things  good  to  eat,  were  so  impressed  by  his  gener- 
osity that  none  of  them  asked  for  the  core  of  the 
half  that  Sam  was  stowing  away  for  himself.  In- 
deed, Ned  Johnston  was  so  affected  that  he  at  once 
agreed  to  a  barter — often  proposed  by  Sam,  and  as 
often  declined — of  his  Centennial  medal  for  a  rather 
old  bass-line  with  a  choice  sinker. 

Before  the  same  hour  of  the  next  day,  however, 
nearly  every  boy  who  attended  Mr.  Morton's  school 
was  wicked  enough  to  wish  to  be  in  just  exactly 
Benny  Mallow's  position,  so  far  as  fathers  were  con- 
cerned. This  sudden  change  of  feeling  was  not 


Music  and  Manners.  39 

caused  by  anything  that  Laketon  fathers  had  done, 
but  through  fear  of  what  they  might  do.  As  no 
two  boys  agreed  upon  a  statement  of  just  how  this 
difference  of  sentiment  occurred,  the  author  is  obliged 
to  tell  the  story  in  his  own  words. 

Usually  the  boys  hurried  away  from  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  school  as  soon  as  possible  after  dismis- 
sal in  the  afternoon,  but  during  the  last  recess  of  the 
day  on  which  the  above -recorded  conversation-  oc- 
curred Will  Palmer  and  Charley  Gunter  completed 
a  series  of  a  hundred  games  of  marbles,  and  had 
the  strange  fortune  to  end  exactly  even.  The  match 
had  already  attracted  a  great  deal  of  attention  in  the 
school — so  much  so  that  boys  who  took  sides  with- 
out thinking  had  foolishly  made  a  great  many  bets 
on  the  result,  and  a  deputation  of  these  informed  the 
players  that  it  would  be  only  the  fair  thing  to  play 
the  deciding  game  that  afternoon  after  school,  so 
that  boys  who  had  bet  part  or  all  of  their  property 
might  know  how  they  stood.  Will  and  Charley 
expressed  no  objection ;  indeed,  each  was  so  anx- 


4O  'Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son  ? 

ious  to  prove  himself  the  best  player  that  in  his  anx- 
iety he  made  many  blunders  during  the  afternoon 
recitations. 

As  soon  as  the  school  was  dismissed  the  boys  hur- 
ried into  the  yard,  while  Grayson,  who  had  lately 
seen  as  much  of  marble -'playing  as  he  cared  to, 
strolled  off  for  a  walk.  The  marble  ring  was 
quickly  scratched  on  the  ground,  and  the  play- 
ers began  work.  But  the  boys  did  not  take  as 
much  interest  in  the  game  as  they  had  expected  to, 
for  a  rival  attraction  had  unexpectedly  appeared 
on  the  ground  since  recess;  two  rival  attractions, 
more  properly  speaking,  or  perhaps  three,  for  in  a 
shady  corner  sat  an  organ-grinder,  on  the  ground  in 
front  of  him  was  an  organ,  and  on  top  of  this  sat 
a  monkey.  Now  to  city  boys  more  than  ten  years 
of  age  an  organ-grinder  is  almost  as  uninteresting 
as  a  scolding;  but  Laketon  was  not  a  city,  organ- 
grinders  reached  it  seldom,  and  monkeys  less  often ; 
so  fully  half  the  boys  lounged  up  to  within  a  few 
feet  of  the  strangers,  and  devoured  them  with  their 


Music  and  Manners.  41 

eyes,  while  the  man  and  the  animal  devoured  some 
scraps  of  food  that  had  been  begged  at  a  kitchen- 
door. 

Nobody  can  deny  that  a  monkey,  even  when  so- 
berly eating  his  dinner,  is  a  very  comical  animal,  and 
no  boy  ever  lived,  not  excepting  that  good  little  boy 
Abel,  who  did  not  naturally  wonder  what  a  strange 
animal  would  do  if  some  one  disturbed  him  in  some 
way.  Which  of  Mr.  Morton's  pupils  first  felt  this 
wonder  about  the  organ-grinder's  monkey  was  never 
known ;  the  boys  soon  became  too  sick  of  the  gener- 
al subject  to  care  to  compare  notes  about  this  special 
phase  of  it ;  but  the  first  one  who  ventured  to  ex- 
periment on  the  monkey  was  Bert  Sharp,  who  made 
so  skilful  a  "plumper"  shot  with  a  marble,  from 
the  level  of  his  trousers  pocket,  that  the  marble 
struck  the  monkey  fairly  in  the  breast,  and  rat- 
tled down  on  the  organ,  while  the  monkey,  who 
evidently  had  seen  boys  before,  made  a  sudden 
jump  to  the  head  of  his  master,  and  then  scrambled 
down  the  Italian's  back,  and  hid  himself  so  that 


42  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son  ? 

he  showed  only  as  much  of  his  head  as  was  neces- 
sary to  his  effort  to  peer  across  the  organ-grinder's 
shoulder. 

"  Maledetta !"  growled  the  Italian,  as  he  looked 
inquiringly  around  him.  As  none  of  the  boys  had 
ever  before  heard  this  word,  they  did  not  know 
whether  it  was  a  question,  a  rebuke,  or  a  threat ;  but 
they  saw  plainly  enough  that  the  man  was  angry; 
and  although  most  of  them  stepped  backward  a  pace 
or  two,  they  all  joined  in  the  general  laugh  that  a 
crowd  of  boys  are  almost  sure  to  indulge  in  when 
they  see  any  one  in  trouble  that  any  one  of  the 
same  boys  would  be  sorry  about  were  he  alone 
when  he  saw  it. 

The  organ-grinder  began  munching  his  food  very 
rapidly,  as  if  in  haste  to  finish  his  meal,  yet  he  did 
not  forget  to  pass  morsels  across  his  shoulder  to  his 
funny  little  companion,  and  the  manner  in  which 
the  monkey  put  up  a  paw  to  take  the  food  amused 
the  boys  greatly.  Benny  Mallow  thought  that 
monkey  was  simply  delightful,  but  he  could  not 


Music  and  Manners.  43 

help  wondering  what  the  animal  would  do  if  a 
marble  were  to  strike  his  paw  as  he  put  it  up. 
Animals'  paws  are  soft  at  bottom,  reasoned  Benny 
to  himself,  and  marbles  shot  through  the  air  can- 
not hurt  much,  if  any;  the  result  of  this  short  ar- 
gument was  that  Benny  tried  a  "plumper"  shot 
himself;  but  the  marble,  instead  of  striking  the 
monkey's  paw,  went  straight  into  the  mouth  of 
the  organ-grinder,  who  was  just  about  to  take  a 
mouthful  of  bread. 

Up  sprung  the  Italian,  with  an  expression  of  coun- 
tenance so  perfectly  dreadful  that  Benny  Mallow 
dreamed  of  it,  for  a  month  after,  whenever  he  ate 
too  much  supper.  All  the  boys  ran,  and  the  Italian 
pursued  them  with  words  so  strange  and  numerous 
that  the  boys  could  not  have  repeated  one  of  them 
had  they  tried.  Every  boy  was  half  a  block  away 
before  he  thought  to  look  around  and  see  whether 
the  footsteps  behind  him  were  those  of  the  organ- 
grinder  or  of  some  frightened  boy.  Sam  Ward  well 
stumbled  and  fell,  at  which  Ned  Johnston,  who  had 


44  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son  ? 

been  but  a  step  or  two  behind,  fell  upon  Sam,  who 
instantly  screamed,  "Oh,  don't,  mister;  I  didn't  do 
it— really  I  didn't." 

On  hearing  this  all  the  other  boys  thought  it  safe 
to  stop  and  look,  and  when  they  saw  the  Italian  was 
not  in  the  street  at  all,  they  felt  so  ashamed  that 
there  is  no  knowing  what  they  would  have  done  if 
they  had  not  had  Sam  Wardwell  to  laugh  at.  As 
for  Sam,  he  was  so  angry  about  the  mistake  he  had 
made  that  he  vowed  vengeance  against  the  Italian, 
and  hurried  back  toward  the  yard.  Will  Palmer 
afterward  said  that  he  couldn't  see  how  the  Italian 
was  to  blame,  and  Ned  Johnston  said  the  very  same 
thought  had  occurred  to  him ;  but  somehow  neither 
of  the  two  happened  to  mention  the  matter,  as  they, 
with  the  other  boys,  followed  Sain  Wardwell  to 
see  what  he  would  do.  Looking  through  the  cracks 
of  the  fence,  the  boys  saw  the  Italian,  with  his  or- 
gan and  monkey  on  his  back,  coming  down  the 
yard;  at  the  same  time  they  saw  nearly  half  a 
brick  go  up  the  yard,  and  barely  miss  the  organ- 


Music  and  Manners.  45 

grinder's  head.  The  man  said  nothing;  perhaps  he 
had  been  in  difficulties  with  boys  before,  and  had 
learned  that  the  best  way  to  get  out  of  them  was 
to  walk  away  as  fast  as  possible ;  besides,  there  was 
no  one  in  sight  for  him  to  talk  to,  for  Sam  had 
started  to  run  the  instant  that  the  piece  of  brick  left 
his  hand.  The  man  came  out  of  the  yard,  looked 
around,  saw  the  boys,  turned  in  the  opposite  direc- 
tion, and  then  turned  up  an  alley  that  passed  one 
side  of  the  school-house. 

He  could  not  have  done  worse;  for  no  one  lived 
on  the  alley,  so  any  mischievous  boy  could  tease  him 
without  fear  of  detection.  He  had  gone  but  a  few 
steps  when  Sam,  who  had  hidden  in  a  garden  on  the 
same  alley,  rose  beside  a  fence,  and  threw  a  stick, 
which  struck  the  organ.  The  man  stopped,  turned 
around,  saw  the  whole  crowd  of  boys  slowly  follow- 
ing, suppospd  some  one  of  them  was  his  assailant, 
threw  the  stick  swiftly  at  the  party,  and  then  start- 
ed to  run.  No  one  was  hit,  but  the  mere  sight  of 
a  frightened  man  trying  to  escape  seemed  to  rob  the 


46  Who  Was  Paul  Grayson  ? 

boys  of  every  particle  of  humanity.  Charley  Gun- 
ter,  who  was  very  fond  of  pets,  devoted  himself  to 
trying  to  hit  the  monkey  with  stones;  Will  Palm- 
er, who  had  once  helped  nurse  a  friendless  negro 
who  had  cut  himself  badly  with  an  axe,  actually 
shouted  "  Hurrah !"  when  a  stone  thrown  by  him- 
self struck  one  of  the  man's  legs,  and  made  him 
limp;  Ned  Johnston  hurriedly  broke  a  soft  brick 
into  small  pieces,  and  threw  them  almost  in  a 
shower ;  and  even  Benny  Mallow,  who  had  always 
been  a  most  tender-hearted  little  fellow,  threw 
stones,  sticks,  and  even  an  old  bottle  that  he  found 
among  the  rubbish  that  had  been  thrown  into  the 
alley. 

Suddenly  a  stone — there  were  so  many  in  the  air 
at  a  time  that  no  one  knew  who  threw  that  partic- 
ular stone — struck  the  organ-grinder  in  the  back  of 
the  head,  and  the  poor  fellow  fell  forward  flat,  with 
his  organ  on  top  of  him,  and  remained  perfectly  mo- 
tionless. 

"  He's  killed !"  exclaimed  some  one,  as  the  pur- 


ATTACK  ON  THE  OKGAN-GRINDER. 


Music  and  Manners.  49 

suers  stopped.  In  an  instant  all  the  boys  went  over 
the  fences  on  either  side  of  the  alley,  but  not  until 
Paul  Grayson,  crossing  the  upper  end  of  the  alley, 
had  seen  them,  and  they  had  seen  him. 

4 


50  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son? 


CHAPTER  IV. 

WHO    WILL    TELL? 

S  Benny  Mallow  hid  himself  in  a  barn  in 
the  yard  into  which  he  had  jumped,  he  had 
only  one  distinct  thought  in  his  mind:  he 
wished  that  the  Italian  had  never  come  to  Laketon 
at  all — never  come  to  the  United  States,  in  fact.  He 
wished  that  the  Italians  had  never  heard  of  such  a 
place  as  America :  if  one  of  the  race  had  to  discover 
it,  he  need  not  have  gone  and  let  his  fellow  -  coun- 
trymen know  all  about  it,  so  that  they  should  come 
over  with  organs  and  monkeys,  and  get  boys  into 
trouble — boys  that  weren't  doing  a  thing  to  that 
organ-grinder  when  he  threw  a  stick  at  them.  What 
made  the  fellow  go  into  the  school  -  yard,  anyway  ? 
No  one  asked  him  to  come.  Now  there  would  be 
a  fuss  made,  of  course;  and  if  there  was  anything 


Who  Will  Tell?  51 

that  Benny  hated  more  than  all  other  things,  it  was 
a  fuss. 

But  what  if  the  organ-grinder  should  really  prove 
to  be  dead?  Oh!  that  would  be  too  dreadful;  all 
the  boys  would  have  to  be  hanged,  to  be  sure  of 
punishing  the  murderer,  just  as  the  whole  class  was 
sometimes  kept  in  for  an  hour  because  something 
wrong  had  been  done,  and  no  one  would  tell  who 
did  it. 

Benny  could  not  bear  the  thought  of  so  dreadful 
a  termination  to  his  life,  for  he  knew  of  a  great  deal 
worth  living  for ;  besides,  his  mother  would  need  his 
help  as  soon  as  he  grew  old  enough  to  earn  anything. 
What  should  he  do  ?  Wait  until  dark,  and  then 
run  away,  and  tramp  off  to  the  West,  where  other 
runaway  boys  went,  or  should  he  make  for  the  sea- 
board, and  from  there  to  South  America,  from  which 
country  he  had  heard  that  criminals  could  not  be 
brought  back  ? 

But  first  he  ought  to  learn  whether  the  man  was 
really  dead ;  it  might  not  be  necessary  to  run  away 


5  2  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son  ? 

at  all.  But  how  should  he  find  out?  Suddenly  he 
remembered  that  Mr.  Ward  well's  barn,  in  which  he 
was,  had  a  window  opening  on  the  alley ;  so  he  crept 
up  into  the  loft,  and  spent  several  moments  in  trying 
to  look  up  the  alley  without  putting  his  head  out 
of  the  window.  Finally,  he  partly  hid  his  face  by 
holding  a  handful  of  hay  in  front  of  it,  and  peered 
out.  Between  the  stalks  of  hay  he  was  delighted  to 
see  the  organ-grinder  on  his  feet,  although  two  men 
were  helping  him.  They  were  not  both  men,  either, 
Benny  saw,  after  more  careful  looking,  for  one  of 
them  was  Paul  Grayson ;  but  the  other — horror  of 
horrors ! — was  Mr.  Stott,  a  justice  of  the  peace.  Ben- 
ny knew  that  Justice  Stott  had  sent  many  men  to 
jail  for  fighting,  and  if  Grayson  should  tell  who 
took  part  in  the  attack,  Benny  had  not  the  slight- 
est doubt  that  half  of  Mr.  Morton's  pupils  would  be 
sent  to  jail  too. 

This  seemed  more  dreadful  than  the  prospect  of 
being  hanged  had  done,  but  it  could  be  done  more 
quickly.  Benny  determined  at  once  that  he  must 


DENNY   MALLOW   IN  THE   BARN. 


Who  Will  Tell?  55 

find  out  the  worst,  and  be  ready  for  it ;  so  he  waited 
until  the  injured  man  and  his  supporters  had  turned 
the  corner  of  a  street,  and  were  out  of  sight;  then 
he  bounded  into  the  alley  again,  hurried  home,  seized 
a  basket  that  was  lying  beside  the  back  door,  and  a 
moment  later  was  sauntering  along  the  street,  whist- 
ling, and  moving  in  a  direction  that  seemed  to  be 
that  in  which  he  might  manage  to  meet  the  three 
as  if  by  accident.  He  did  not  take  much  comfort 
out  of  his  whistling,  for  in  his  heart  he  felt  himself 

O' 

to  be  the  most  shameful  hypocrite  that  had  existed 
since  the  days  of  Judas  Iscariot,  and  the  recollection 
of  having  been  told  by  his  Sunday-school  teacher 
within  a  week  that  he  was  the  best  boy  in  his 
class  seemed  to  make  him  feel  worse  instead  of 
better;  and  his  mind  was  not  relieved  of  this  un- 
pleasant burden  until  at  a  shady  corner  he  came 
suddenly  upon  the  organ-grinder  and  his  supporters, 
when  he  instantly  exchanged  his  load  for  a  new 
one. 

"Why,  what's  the  matter,  Paul?"  asked  Benny, 


56  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son? 

with  as  much  surprise  in  his  tone  and  manner  as 
he  could  affect. 

Justice  Stott  had  just  gone  into  an  adjacent  yard 
for  water  for  the  Italian,  when  Grayson  answered, 
with  a  very  sober  face,  "  You  know  as  well  as  I 
do,  Benny,  and  I  saw  the  whole  crowd." 

"  I  don't !"  exclaimed  Benny,  in  all  the  despera- 
tion of  cowardice.  "  I  didn't  do  or  see — " 

"  Sh  —  h  !"  whispered  Graysou,  "  the  Justice  is 
coming  back." 

Benny  turned  abruptly  and  started  for  home. 
He  felt  certain  that  his  face  was  telling  tales,  and 
that  Justice  Stott  would  learn  the  whole  story  if 
he  saw  him.  There  was  one  comfort,  though:  it 
was  evident  that  Grayson  did  not  want  the  Jus- 
tice to  know  that  Benny  had  taken  part  in  the 
affair. 

There  was  a  great  deal  of  business  transacted  by 
the  boys  of  Laketon  that  night.  How  it  was  all 
managed  no  one  could  have  explained,  but  it  is  cer- 
tain that  before  bedtime  every  boy  who  had  taken 


Who  Will  Tell?  57 

part  in  the  assault  on  the  Italian  knew  that  the 
man  was  not  dead,  but  had  merely  been  stunned 
and  cut  by  a  stone,  and  Paul  Grayson  knew  who 
were  of  the  party  that  chased  the  man  up  the  alley. 
Various  plans  of  getting  out  of  trouble  were  in 
turn  suggested  and  abandoned;  but  several  boys 
for  a  long  time  insisted  that  the  only  chance  of 
safety  lay  in  calling  Grayson  out  of  his  boarding- 
house,  and  threatening  him  with  the  worst  whip- 
ping that  the  boys,  all  working  together,  could  give. 
Even  this  idea  was  finally  abandoned  when  Will 
Palmer  suggested  that  as  Grayson  boarded  with 
the  teacher,  and  seemed  to  be  in  some  sort  a  friend 
of  his,  he  probably  would  already  have  told  all  he 
knew,  if  he  was  going  to  tell  at  all.  Some  conso- 
lation might  have  been  got  out  of  a  report  of  Ben- 
ny's short  interview  with  Grayson,  had  Benny 
thought  to  give  it,  but  he  had,  on  reaching  home, 
promptly  feigned  headache,  and  gone  to  bed ;  so 
such  of  the  boys  as  did  not  determine  to  play  tru- 
ant, and  so  postpone  the  evil  day,  thought  bitterly 


58  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son  ? 

of  the  morrow  as  they  dispersed  to  their  several 
homes. 

There  was  not  as  much  playing  as  usual  in  the 
school-yard  next  morning;  and  when  the  class  was 
summoned  into  school,  the  teacher  had  no  difficulty 
in  discovering,  by  the  looks  of  the  various  boys, 
who  were  innocent  and  who  guilty.  Immediately 
after  calling  the  roll  Mr.  Morton  stood  up  and  said : 

"Boys,  a  great  many  of  you  know  what  I  am 
going  to  talk  about.  Usually  your  deeds  done  out 
of  school-hours  are  not  for  me  to  notice;  but  the 
cowardly,  shameful  treatment  of  that  organ-grinder 
began  in  the  school-yard,  and  before  you  had  gone 
to  your  homes,  so  I  think  it  my  duty  to  inquire 
into  the  matter.  Justice  Stott  thinks  so  too. 
When  any  one  has  done  a  wrong  that  he  cannot 
amend,  the  only  manly  course  is  to  confess.  I  want 
those  boys  who  followed  the  organ-grinder  up  the 
alley  to  stand  up." 

No  boy  arose.  Benny  Mallow  wished  that  some 
one  would  give  the  bottom  of  his  seat  a  hard  kick, 


Who  Will  Tell?  59 

so  that  he  would  have  to  rise  in  spite  of  himself, 
but  no  one  kicked. 

"Be  honest,  now,"  said  Mr.  Morton.  "I  have 
been  a  boy  myself;  I  have  taken  part  in  just  such 
tricks.  I  know  how  bad  you  feel,  and  how  hard 
it  is  to  confess;  but  I  give  you  my  word  that  you 
will  feel  a  great  deal  better  after  telling  the  truth. 
I  will  give  you  one  minute  more  before  I  try  an- 
other plan." 

Mr.  Morton  took  out  his  watch,  and  looked  at 
it;  the  boys  who  had  not  been  engaged  in  the  mis- 
chief looked  virtuously  around  them,  and  the  guilty 
boys  looked  at  their  desks. 

"Now,"  exclaimed  Mr.  Morton,  replacing  his 
watch  in  his  pocket.  "Stand  up  like  men.  Will 
none  of  you  do  it  ?" 

Benny  Mallow  whispered,  "Yes,  sir,"  but  the 
teacher  did  not  hear  him ;  besides,  Benny  made  no 
effort  to  keep  his  word,  so  his  whispering  amounted 
to  nothing. 

"  Grayson,"  said  Mr.  Morton,  "  come  here." 


60  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son  ? 

Bert  Sharp,  who  sat  near  the  front  of  the  room, 
where  the  teacher  could  watch  him,  edged  to  the 
end  of  his  seat,  so  as  to  be  ready  to  jump  up  and 
run  away  the  moment  Grayson  told — if  he  dared  to 
tell.  Most  of  the  other  boys  found  their  hearts  so 
high  in  their  throats  that  they  could  not  swallow 
them  again,  as  Grayson,  looking  very  white  and 
uncomfortable,  stepped  to  the  front. 

"  Grayson,"  said  the  teacher,  "  I  have  known  you 
for  many  months:  have  I  ever  been  unkind  to 
you  ?" 

"No,  sir,"  replied  Grayson;  then  he  wiped  his 
eyes;  seeing  which,  Bert  Sharp  thought  he  might 
as  well  run  now  as  later,  for  boys  who  began  by 
crying  always  ended  by  telling. 

"You  saw  the  attack  made  on  the  Italian;  Jus- 
tice Stott  says  you  admitted  as  much  to  him.  Now 
I  want  you  to  tell  me  who  were  of  the  party." 

"  May  I  speak  first,  sir  ?"  asked  Grayson. 

"  Yes,"  said  the  teacher. 

"Boys,"    said    Grayson,   half  facing    the    school, 


"MR  MORTON,  I  WAS  THERE." 


Who  Will  Tell?  63 

"you  all  hate  a  tell-tale,  and  so  do  I.  Do  you 
think  it  the  fair  thing  to  hold  your  tongues  and 
make  a  tell-tale  of  me  ?" 

Grayson  looked  at  Will  Palmer  as  he  spoke,  but 
Will  only  looked  sulky  in  return ;  then  Grayson 
looked  at  Benny  Mallow,  and  Benny  was  fast  mak- 
ing up  his  mind  that  he  would  tell  rather  than 
have  his  friend  do  it,  when  up  stood  Bert  Sharp 
and  said, 

"  Mr.  Morton,  I  was  there." 

"  Bravo,  Sharp !"  exclaimed  the  teacher.  "  Gray- 
son,  you  may  take  your  seat.  Sharp,  step  to  the 
front.  Now,  boys,  who  is  man  enough  to  stand 
beside  Sharp?" 

"  I  am,"  piped  Benny  Mallow,  and  he  almost  ran 
in  his  eagerness. 

"It's  no  use,"  whispered  Will  Palmer  to  Ned 
Johnston,  and  the  two  boys  went  to  the  front  to- 
gether; then  there  was  a  general  uprising,  and  a 
scramble  to  see  who  should  not  be  last. 

"  Good !"  exclaimed  Mr.  Morton,  looking  at  the 


64  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son  ? 

culprits  and  then  about  the  school- room;  "I  be- 
lieve you're  all  here.  I'm  proud  of  you,  boys.  You 
did  a  shameful  thing  in  attacking  a  harmless  man, 
but  you  have  done  nobly  by  confessing.  I  cannot 
let  you  off  without  punishment,  but  you  will  suffer 
far  less  than  you  would  have  done  by  successfully 
concealing  your  fault.  None  of  you  are  to  go  out 
at  recess  next  week.  Now  go  to  your  seats.  Sharp, 
you  may  take  any  unoccupied  desk  you  like.  After 
this  I  think  I  can  trust  you  to  behave  yourself 
without  being  watched." 

The  boys  had  never  before  seen  Sharp  look  as 
he  did  as  he  walked  to  a  desk  in  the  back  of  the 
room  and  sat  down.  As  soon  as  the  bell  was  struck 
for  recess  Graysou  hurried  over  to  Sharp  and  said, 

"  You  helped  me  out  of  a  terrible  scrape,  do  you 
know  it  3" 

"  I'm  glad  of  it,"  said  Sharp.  "  And  that  isn't 
all ;  I  wish  I  could  think  of  something  else  to  own 
up  to." 


Those  Jail-birds.  65 


CHAPTER  V. 

THOSE   JAIL-BIRDS. 

LTHOUGH  the  people  of  Laketon  could 
not  forgive  Mr.  Morton  and  Paul  Grayson 
for  not  talking  more  about  themselves  and 
their  past  lives,  they  could  not  deny  that  both  the 
teacher  and  his  pupil  were  of  decided  value  to  the 
town.  All  the  boys,  whether  in  Mr.  Morton's  school 
or  the  public  school,  seemed  to  like  Paul  Grayson 
when  they  became  acquainted  with  him,  and  the 
parents  of  the  boys  sensibly  argued  that  there  could 
not  be  anything  very  bad  about  a  boy  who  was  so 
popular.  Besides,  the  other  boys  in  talking  about 
Paul  declared  that  he  never  swore  and  never  lied; 
and  as  lying  and  swearing  were  the  two  vices  most 
common  among  the  Laketon  boys,  and  therefore 
most  hated  by  the  parents,  they  felt  that  there  was 

5 


66  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son  ? 

at  least  no  occasion  to  regard  the  new-comer  with 
suspicion. 

As  for  Mr.  Morton,  he  rapidly  made  his  way  among 
the  more  solid  citizens.  He  was  willing  to  work, 
whether  his  services  were  required  by  church,  Sun- 
day-school, or  society,  and  he  did  not  care  to  hold 
office  of  any  sort,  so  his  sincerity  was  cheerfully  ad- 
mitted by  all.  When,  however,  he  had  one  day, 
soon  after  his  arrival,  asked  several  prominent  men 
why  the  town  had  no  society,  or  even  person,  to  visit 
the  very  poor  and  the  persons  who  might  be  in  pris- 
on, he  ran  some  risk  of  being  considered  meddlesome. 

"  We  know  our  own  people  best,"  said  Sam  Ward- 
well's  father.  "The  only  people  here  who  suffer 
from  poverty  are  those  who  won't  work,  while  the 
few  people  who  get  into  our  jail  are  hard  cases; 
half  of  them  wouldn't  listen  to  you  if  you  talked  to 
them,  and  the  others  would  listen  only  to  have  an 
excuse  to  beg  tobacco  or  something.  There's  a  man 
in  the  jail  now  for  passing  counterfeit  money ;  he's 
committed  for  trial  when  the  County  Court  sits  in 


Those  Jail-birds.  67 

September ;  that  man  is  just  as  smart  as  you  or  I. 
He  is  as  fine  a  looking  fellow  as  you  would  wish  to 
see,  talks  like  a  straightforward  business  man,  and  yet 
he  passed  counterfeit  bills  at  four  different  places  in 
this  town.  What  would  talk  do  for  such  a  fellow?" 

"No  one  knows  until  some  one  tries  it,"  replied 
the  teacher,  quietly. 

"  Well,  all  I  have  to  say  is,"  remarked  Mr.  Ward- 
well,  in  a  tone  that  was  intended  to  be  very  sarcas- 
tic, "  those  who  have  plenty  of  time  to  waste  must 
do  the  trying.  If  you  want  such  work  done,  why 
don't  you  do  it  yourself?" 

"  I  would  cheerfully  do  it  if  it  did  not  seem  to  be 
presumptuous  on  the  part  of  a  stranger." 

"Don't  trouble  your  mind  about  that,"  said  the 
store •  keeper,  with  a  laugh ;  "the  counterfeiter  is  a 
stranger  too,  so  matters  will  be  even.  There's  the 
sheriff,  in  front  of  the  post-office ;  do  you  know  him  ? 
No  ?  Let  us  step  over,  and  I'll  introduce  you ;  and 
I'll  wish  you  more  luck  than  you'll  have  in  the  jail, 
if  that  will  be  of  any  consolation." 


68  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son? 

Mr.  Morton  found  Sheriff  Towler  quite  a  pleas- 
ant man  to  talk  to,  and  perfectly  willing  to  have  his 
prisoners  improve  in  body  and  mind  by  any  method 
except  that  of  getting  out  of  jail  before  their  respec- 
tive terms  of  imprisonment  had  expired,  or  before 
they  were  by  superior  authority  ordered  to  some 
other  place  of  confinement,  as  he,  the  sheriff,  wished 
might  at  once  be  the  case  with  John  Doe,  the  man 
who  was  awaiting  trial  for  passing  bad  bank-notes. 
All  this  the  sheriff  said  as  he  walked  with  Mr.  Mor- 
ton from  the  post-office  to  the  jail.  Arrived  at  the 
last-named  building,  the  sheriff  instructed  his  deputy, 
who  had  charge  of  the  place,  to  admit  Mr.  Morton 
at  any  time  that  gentleman  might  care  to  converse 
with  any  of  the  prisoners. 

The  teacher  walked  first  through  the  upper  rooms, 
where  a  small  but  choice  assortment  of  habitual 
drunkards  and  petty  thieves  were  confined;  these, 
as  Sam  Wardwell's  father  had  predicted,  either  de- 
clined to  converse  or  talked  stupidly  for  a  moment 
or  two,  and  then  begged  either  tobacco  or  money  to 


Those  Jail-birds.  69 

buy  it  with.  Still,  Mr.  Morton  thought  he  saw  in 
these  wretched  fellows  some  material  to  work  upon, 
when  time  allowed.  Then  he  went  below,  and  the 
deputy  took  him  to  the  small  grated  window  in  the 
door  of  the  strong  cell  for  desperate  offenders,  and 
said  to  John  Doe  that  a  gentleman  who  was  visiting 
the  prisoners  would  like  to  •  speak  with  him.  The 
deputy  went  away  immediately  after  saying  this, 
and  Mr.  Morton  quickly  put  his  face  to  the  grated 
window.  A  face  appeared  on  the  other  side  of  the 
grating,  and  then,  as  Mr.  Morton  placed  his  hand  be- 
tween the  bars,  which  were  barely  wide  enough  apart 
to  admit  it,  he  felt  his  fingers  grasped  most  earnestly 
by  the  hand  of  the  prisoner.  If  Mr.  Wardwell  could 
have  felt  that  grasp  and  seen  the  prisoner's  face,  he 
might  have  greatly  changed  his  opinion  of  smart 
prisoners  in  general. 

Somehow  John  Doe  preferred  to  restrict  his  re- 
marks to  whispers,  and  for  some  reason  Mr.  Morton 
humored  him.  The  interview  lasted  but  a  few  mo- 
ments, and  ended  with  a  plea  and  a  promise  that 


70  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son  ? 

another  call  should  be  made.  Meanwhile,  Mr.  Ward- 
well  had  stood  on  a  corner  that  commanded  the  jail, 
and  when  the  teacher  reappeared  the  merchant  asked, 
"Well?" 

"  They  are  a  sad  set,"  Mr.  Morton  admitted. 

"  I  told  you  so,"  said  Ward  well,  rubbing  his  hands, 
as  if  he  were  glad  rather  than  sorry  that  the  pris- 
oners were  as  bad  as  he  had  thought  them.  "  And 
how  did  you  find  that  rascally  counterfeiter?  I'll 
warrant  he  didn't  care  to  see  you  ?" 

"  On  the  contrary,"  replied  the  teacher,  gravely, 
"he  was  very  glad  to  see  me.  He  begged  me  to 
come  again.  He  was  so  glad  to  see  some  one  not  a 
jailer  that  he  cried." 

"  Well,  I  never !"  exclaimed  the  merchant.  And 
he  told  the  truth. 

It  was  soon  after  this  first  visit  of  a  series  that 
lasted  as  long  as  Mr.  Morton  remained  in  the  village 
that  the  boys  changed  their  base-ball  ground.  They 
had  generally  played  in  some  open  ground  on  the 
edge  of  the  town,  but  the  teacher  one  day  asked  why 


Those  Jail-birds.  71 

they  should  go  so  far,  when  the  entire  square  on 
which  the  court-house  and  jail  stood  was  vacant,  ex- 
cept for  those  two  buildings.  The  boys  spent  a 
whole  recess  in  considering  this  suggestion;  then 
they  reported  it  favorably  to  the  other  boys  of  the 
town,  and  it  was  adopted  almost  unanimously  that 
very  week;  and  Canning  Forbes  could  always  re- 
member even  the  day  of  the  month  on  which  the 
first  game  was  played,  for  he,  as  a  "fielder,"  caught 
the  ball  exactly  on  the  tip  of  the  longest  finger  of 
his  left  hand,  and  he  stayed  home  with  that  finger, 
and  woke  up  nights  with  it,  for  a  full  week  after- 
ward. 

Paul  Grayson  had  not  attended  Mr.  Morton's 
school  a  fortnight  before  every  one  knew  that  ball 
was  his  favorite  game.  This  preference  on  the  part 
of  the  new  boy  did  not  entirely  please  Benny  Mal- 
low, who  preferred  to  have  his  new  friend  play  mar- 
bles, and  with  him  alone,  because  then  he  could  talk 
to  him  a  great  deal ;  whereas  at  ball,  even  "  town- 
ball,"  which  needed  but  four  boys  to  a  game,  there 


72  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son  ? 

was  not  much  opportunity  for  talking,  while  at  base- 
ball the  chances  were  less,  even  were  Benny  not  so 
generally  out  of  breath  when  he  met  Grayson  on  a 
"  base  "  that  conversation  was  impossible. 

But  Grayson  clung  to  ball;  he  did  not  seem  to 
care  much  for  it  in  the  school  -  yard,  which,  indeed, 
was  rather  small  for  such  games,  but  after  school 
was  dismissed  in  the  afternoons  he  always  tried  to 
get  up  a  game  on  the  new  grounds,  and  he  generally 
succeeded.  Even  boys  who  did  not  care  particular- 
ly for  the  sport  had  been  told  by  Mr.  Morton  that 
about  the  only  diversion  of  the  wretched  men  in 
the  jail  was  to  look  out  the  window  while  ball-play- 
ing was  going  on ;  and  as  Mr.  Morton  had  begun  to 
attain  special  popularity  through  his  work  among 
the  prisoners,  the  boys  who  liked  him,  as  most  of 
them  did,  were  glad  to  help  him  to  the  small  extent 
they  were  able. 

"  I  really  can't  see  why  Grayson  should  be  so  fond 
of  ball,"  said  Canning  Forbes  one  afternoon,  as  he 
and  several  other  boys  lay  under  the  big  elm  -  tree 


Those  Jailrbirds.  73 

behind  the  court-house  and  criticised  the  boys  who 
were  playing.  "  He  isn't  much  of  a  pitcher,  he  doesn't 
bat  very  well,  and  he  often  loses  splendid  chances, 
while  he's  catcher,  by  not  seeming  to  see  the  ball 
when  it's  coming.  I  wonder  if  his  eyes  can  be  bad  ?" 

"  I  don't  believe  they  are,"  said  Will  Palmer ;  "  he 
is  keen-sighted  enough  about  everything  else.  Ab- 
sent-mindedness is  his  great  trouble;  every  once  in 
a  while  he  gets  his  eyes  fixed  on  something  as  if  he 
couldn't  move  them." 

"  He  gets  into  a  brown-study,  you  mean,"  suggest- 
ed Forbes. 

"  That's  it,"  assented  Will. 

"  He's  thinking  about  the  splendors  of  the  royal 
home  that  he  is  being  kept  away  from,"  said  Napo- 
leon Nott.  "You  just  ought  to  read  what  sort  of  a 
place  a  royal  home  is,"  continued  Notty.  "  I'll  bring 
up  a  book  about  it  some  day,  and  read  it  aloud  to 
all  of  you  fellows." 

"No  you  won't,  Notty,"  said  Canning  Forbes; 
"  not  if  we  have  any  legs  left  to  run  away  with." 


74  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son? 

Some  internal  hints  that  supper-time  was  approach- 
ing broke  up  the  game,  and  the  boys  moved  off  the 
ground,  by  twos  and  threes,  until  only  Paul  and  Ben- 
ny remained.  Paul  seemed  in  no  particular  hurry 
to  start,  and  as  Benny  never  seemed  to  imagine  that 
Paul  could  see  himself  safely  home  from  any  place, 
he  remained  too. 

"  Benny,"  said  Paul,  suddenly,  "  did  you  ever  see 
any  one  in  jail  2" 

"  No,"  said  Benny,  "  I  never  did." 

"  Neither  did  I,"  said  Paul, "  but  I'm  curious  to  do 
so  now.  You  needn't  go  with  me;  the  sight  might 
pain  you  too  much." 

"  What !  Just  to  go  to  the  jail,  and  look  up  at 
the  windows?  Oh  no;  tliat  won't  hurt  me.  I've 
done  that  lots  of  times." 

"  Very  well,"  said  Paul,  moving  toward  the  jail. 
He  looked  up  at  the  windows  as  he  walked ;  finally 
he  stopped  where  he  could  look  fairly  at  the  small 
window  of  the  cell  where  the  counterfeiter  was.  The 
sun  was  not  shining  upon  that  side  of  the  jail,  so 


THE  WINDOW  OF  THE  COUNTERFEITER'S  CELL. 


Those  Jail-birds.  77 

Benny  could  barely  see  there  was  a  face  behind  the 
window.  Evidently  the  prisoner  was  standing  on 
a  chair,  for  the  little  window  was  quite  high.  Paul's 
eyes  seemed  better  than  Benny's,  however,  for  he 
continued  looking  at  that  window  for  some  moments. 
When  he  finally  turned  away,  it  was  because  he 
could  not  see  any  longer,  for  his  eyes  were  full  of 
tears. 

"  Why,  you're  crying !"  exclaimed  Benny,  in  some 
astonishment.  "  What  is  the  matter  ?" 

"  I'm  so  sorry  for  the  poor  fellow,"  replied  Paul. 

"  I  am  too,"  said  Benny — "  awfully  sorry.  I  wish 
I  could  cry  about  it,  but  somehow  my  eyes  don't 
work  right  to-day.  Some  days  I  can  cry. real  easily. 
Next  time  one  of  those  days  comes,  I'll  come  over 
here  with  you,  and  let  you  see  what  I  can  do." 


78  Who  Was  Paul  Grayson  ? 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  BEANTASSEL  BENEFIT. 

F  the  many  boys  who  were  curious  about 
Paul  Grayson's  antecedents,  no  one  devoted 
more  attention  to  the  subject  than  Benny 
Mallow.  Benny  was  short,  and  Paul  was  tall ;  Ben- 
ny was  fat,  and  Paul  was  thin ;  Benny's  hair  was 
light,  while  Paul's  was  black  as  jet;  Benny  had 
light  blue  eyes,  while  those  of  Paul  were  of  a  rich 
brown;  Benny  always  had  something  to  say  about 
himself,  while  Paul  never  seemed  to  think  his  affairs 
of  the  slightest  interest  to  any  one  but  himself:  so, 
taking  all  things  into  account,  it  is  not  wonderful 
that  Benny  Mallow  spent  whole  half-hours  in  con- 
templating his  friend  with  admiration  and  wonder. 

Still  more,  as  Benny  had  been  accepted  by  every 
one  as  Paul's  particular  friend,  he  actually  was  be- 


The  Beantassel  Benefit.  79 

sieged  with  all  sorts  of  questions,  and  to  answer 
these  without  letting  himself  down  in  the  estima- 
tion of  the  school  was  no  easy  matter,  when  he  did 
not  know  any  more  about  Paul  than  any  one  else 
did.  One  question,  however,  he  settled  to  the  entire 
satisfaction  of  every  one  but  Napoleon  Nott — Gray- 
son  was  not  an  exiled  prince.  Benny  was  sure  of 
this,  because  he  had  asked  Paul  if  he  had  ever  been 
on  the  other  side  of  the  ocean,  and  Paul  had  an- 
swered that  he  had  not.  Notty  endeavored  to 
make  light  of  this  evidence  by  showing  how  easy 
it  would  have  been  to  spirit  the  mysterious  person 
away  from  his  royal  home  and  to  America  while  he 
was  a  baby,  and  therefore  too  young  to  know  any- 
ching  about  it;  but  Will  Palmer  told  Notty  that  it 
was  about  time  to  stop  making  a  fool  of  himself, 
and  the  other  boys  present  said  they  thought  so  too, 
at  which  Notty  became  so  angry  that  he  vowed,  in 
the  presence  of  at  least  a  dozen  boys,  that  when 
the  truth  came  out,  and  all  the  boys  wanted  to  bor- 
row his  copy  of  "  The  Exiled  Prince :  a  Tale  of 


8o  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son? 

Woe,"  he  would  not  lend  it  to  them,  even  if  it  were 
to  save  them  from  death ;  he  would  not  even  let 
them  look  at  the  cover,  with  its  picture  of  the  'prince 
and  the  name  of  the  publisher. 

Meanwhile  Mr.  Morton  had  continued  his  visits 
to  the  prisoners  and  to  the  poor  of  the  town,  and 
out  of  school  hours  he  had  so  interested  the  boys 
in  some  of  the  suffering  families  of  worthless  men 
or  widowed  women,  that  it  was  agreed  by  the  whole 
school  that  the  teasing  of  any  of  the  boys  of  these 
families  about  the  holes  in  their  trousers,  or  provok- 
ing fights  with  or  between  them,  should  entirely 
stop;  indeed,  as  this  suggestion  came  from  Bert 
Sharp,  who  was  fonder  of  fighting  than  any  other 
boy  in  the  town,  the  school  could  not  well  do  othei 
wise. 

The  boys  went  even  farther:  when  one  day  old 
Peter  Bean  tassel,  whose  family  was  always  on  the 
verge  of  starvation,  spent  on  drink  the  accidental 
earnings  of  a  week,  and  then  fell  into  an  abandoned 
well  and  was  drowned,  it  was  decided  by  the  school 


The  Beantas set  Benefit.  81 

to  give  an  exhibition  for  the  benefit  of  Mrs.  Bean- 
tassel  and  her  six  children.  Mr.  Morton  was  de- 
lighted, and  promised  to  secure  a  church  or  hall 
without  expense  to  the  boys,  and  to  collect  enough 
money  from  the  public  to  pay  for  printing  the  tick- 
ets. The  boys  at  once  began  work  in  tremendous 
earnest;  they  were  for  a  fortnight  so  busy  at  de- 
termining upon  a  programme,  and  studying,  rehears- 
ing, selling  tickets,  and  exacting  promises  from  peo- 
ple who  would  not  purchase  in  advance,  that  there 
was  but  little  playing  before  school  and  during 
recess,  blackberry  hedges  were  neglected,  and  the 
trout  in  the  single  brook  near  the  town  had  not  the 
slightest  excuse  for  apprehension. 

Paul  Grayson  entered  into  the  spirit  of  the  oc- 
casion as  thoroughly  as  any  one  else;  he  volun- 
teered to  recite  Longfellow's  "  Psalm  of  Life,"  and 
when  the  farce  of  "  Box  and  Cox  "  was  about  to  be 
given  up  because  no  boy  was  willing  to  dress  up 
in  women's  clothes,  and  be  laughed  at  by  all  the 
larger  girls,  for  playing  the  part  of  Mrs.  Bouncer, 

6 


82  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son  ? 

Paul  volunteered  for  that  unpopular  character,  and 
saved  the  play.  But  this  was  not  all.  There  were 
to  be  some  tableaux ;  and  as  Mr.  Morton  had  been 
asked  to  suggest  some  scenes,  particularly  one  or 
two  with  Indians  in  them,  and  was  as  fond  of  point- 
ing a  moral  as  teachers  usually  are,  one  of  his  tab- 
leaux, to  be  called  "Civilization,"  was  a  scene  in 
the  interior  of  an  Indian's  wigwam.  The  squaw, 
who  had  just  been  killed,  was  lying  dead  on  the 
floor ;  her  husband,  with  his  hands  tied,  stood  bleed- 
ing between  two  soldiers,  while  between  father  and 
mother  stood  the  half-grown  son,  wondering  what 
it  all  was  about.  As  all  of  the  boys  wanted  to 
see  this  tragic  picture,  all  of  them  declined  to  take 
part  in  it;  Joe  Appleby  had  been  heard  to  remark 
with  a  sneer  that  only  very  small  and  green  boys 
cared  to  look  at  Indians,  so  he  was  asked  to  take 
the  part  of  the  wretched  son  himself;  but  he  said 
that  when  any  one  saw  him  making  a  fool  of  him- 
self by  browning  his  face  and  dressing  up  in  rags, 
he  hoped  some  one  would  tell  him  about  it:  so 


The  Beantassel  Benefit.  83 

Grayson,  as  the  only  other  tall  boy  who  had  dark 
hair  that  was  not  cut  short,  was  cast  for  this  part 
also,  and  offered  no  objection.  As  for  the  bleeding 
chieftain,  Napoleon  Nott  fought  hard  to  pose  in  that 
character,  and  was  quieted  only  by  being  allowed 
to  play  the  dead  squaw,  which  all  the  boys  told 
him  he  ought  easily  to  see  was  the  more  romantic 
part,  besides  being  one  in  which  he  could  by  no 
chance  make  any  mistake. 

The  place  selected  for  the  entertainment  was  the 
lecture -room  of  the  Presbyterian  church,  and  the 
boys  had  therefore  to  give  up  their  darling  project 
of  devoting  half  an  hour  of  the  evening  to  amateur 
negro  minstrelsy;  for  one  of  the  deacons  said  that 
while  he  sometimes  doubted  that  even  an  organ  was 
a  proper  musical  instrument  for  use  in  sacred  build- 
ings, he  certainly  was  not  going  to  tolerate  banjos 
and  bones.  This  decision  was  a  great  disappoint- 
ment to  Benny  Mallow,  who  had  been  selected  by 
the  managers  to  perform  upon  the  tambourine,  but 
in  the  revision  of  the  programme  Benny  was  as- 


84  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son  ? 

signed  to  duty  in  a  tableau  as  a  little  fat  goblin, 
and  this  so  .tickled  his  fancy  that  he  did  not  suffer 
long  by  the  disappointment. 

At  last  the  eventful  night  arrived.  Some  of  the 
boys  did  not  leave  the  lecture-room  at  all  after  the 
last  rehearsal,  not  even  to  get  their  suppers,  for  fear 
they  should  be  late,  and  those  who  reached  the 
room  barely  in  time  to  take  their  parts  had  all  they 
could  do  to  squeeze  through  the  crowd  that  blocked 
the  doors  and  filled  the  aisles.  The  spectacle  of 
so  crowded  a  house  raised  the  boys  to  a  high  pitch 
of  excitement,  which  was  increased  by  various  peeps, 
from  the  curtains  that  served  as  dressing-rooms,  at 
the  Beantassel  children,  who  by  some  thoughtful 
soul  had  been  provided  with  free  seats  in  the  ex- 
treme front  bench;  there  they  were,  all  but  the 
baby ;  they  had  been  provided  with  clothing  which, 
though  old,  was  far  more  sightly  than  the  rags  they 
usually  wore,  and  although  they  did  not  seem  as 
much  at  ease  as  some  others  among  the  spectators, 
their  eyes  stood  so  very  open,  then  and  throughout 


The  Beantassel  Benefit.  85 

the  evening,  that  even  Joe  Appleby,  who  had  re- 
luctantly consented  to  pose,  in  his  best  clothes,  with 
gloves,  cane,  and  high  hat,  as  Young  America  in  a 
tableau  of  "  The  Nations,"  agreed  with  himself 
that  the  exhibition  was  rather  a  meritorious  idea 
after  all,  and  that  even  if  the  boys  did  as  badly 
as  he  knew  they  would,  he  was  glad  it  was  sure 
to  pay. 

But  the  boys  did  not  do  badly;  on  the  contrary, 
the  general  performance  would  have  been  quite 
creditable  to  adults.  The  opening  was  somewhat 
dismal;  it  was  announced  to  consist  of  a  duet  for 
two  flutes  by  Will  Palmer  and  Ned  Johnston.  The 
boys  had  practised  industriously  at  several  airs  in 
order  to  discover  which  would  be  best,  and  at  last 
they  supposed  they  had  fully  agreed;  but  when 
seated  Ned  began  the  Miserere  from  "Trovatore," 
while  Will  started  "The  Old  Folks  at  Home;"  and 
each  was  sure  the  other  was  wrong,  and  would  cor- 
rect himself,  which  the  other  in  both  cases  failed  to 
do ;  the  two  boys  finally  retired  abruptly,  amid  con- 


86  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son  ? 

siderable  laughter,  and  fought  the  matter  out  in  the 
dressing-room.  ^ 

Paul  Grayson  soon  restored  order,  however,  by 
his  rendering  of  the  "Psalm  of  Life."  He  had  a 
fine  voice,  and  he  spoke  the  lines  as  if  he  meant 
them;  so  gloriously  did  his  voice  ring  that  even 
the  boys  in  the  dressing-room  kept  silence  and  lis- 
tened, though  they  had  heard  the  same  verses  a 
hundred  times  before. 

Most  of  the  performances  that  followed  went 
very  smoothly,  although  Benny  Mallow,  who  played 
the  Hatter's  part  in  "Box  and  Cox,"  caused  some 
confusion  by  laughing  frequently  and  unexpectedly, 
because  Paul's  disguise  as  Mrs.  Bouncer  affected 
him  powerfully  in  spite  of  the  efforts  made  by  Sam 
Wardwell,  as  the  Printer,  to  restrain  him.  The  tab- 
leaux pleased  the  audience  greatly;  even  that  of 
"Prometheus,"  with  Ned  Johnston  as  the  sufferer, 
and  Mrs.  Battle's  big  red  rooster  as  the  vulture, 
brought  down  the  house. 

But  the  great  tableau  of  the   evening  was  the 


The  Beantassel  Benefit.  87 

teacher's  "Civilization."  When  Paul  Grayson  had 
understood  fully  what  the  scene  was  to  be,  he  re- 
fused so  earnestly  to  have  anything  to  do  with  it 
that  the  boys  were  startled.  They  did  not  excuse 
him  from  taking  the  part  of  the  young  Indian, 
however;  they  pleaded  so  steadily  that  at  last  Paul 
consented,  but  in  worse  temper  than  any  one  had 
ever  seen  him  before.  No  one  could  complain  of 
the  manner  in  which  he  acted  on  the  stage,  how- 
ever. When  the  curtain  was  drawn  he  was  seen 
standing  beside  his  dead  mother,  and  shaking  a  fist 
at  the  soldiers;  in  color,  dress,  pose,  and  spirit  he 
seemed  to  be  a  real  Indian,  if  the  audience  was  a 
competent  judge;  then,  when  the  applause  justified 
a  recall,  as  it  soon  did,  the  drawn  curtain  disclosed 
Paul  clinging  to  the  wounded  brave  as  if  nothing 
should  ever  tear  him  away. 

Napoleon  Nott  saw  all  this,  although,  as  the 
Indian  boy's  mother,  he  was  supposed  to  be 
dead  beyond  recall.  Suddenly  he  felt  himself 
to  be  inspired,  and  when  the  curtain  was  down 


88  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son  ? 

he  flew  into  the  dressing-room  and  exclaimed,  "  I've 
got  it !" 

"Be  careful  not  to  hurt  it,"  said  Canning  Forbes, 
sarcastically. 

"  I've  got  it !"  declared  Notty,  without  noticing 
Canning's  cruel  speech.  "Grayson  is  an  Indian, 
a  chief's  son.  You  don't  suppose  he  could  have 
made  believe  so  well  as  all  that,  do  you?  That's 
it.  I  knew  he  was  a  great  person  of  some  sort. 
Sh — h  !  he's  coming." 

Somehow  the  boys  who  had  been  able  to  peep 
out  at  the  tableau  did  not  laugh  at  Notty  this 
time.  Paul,  in  his  Indian  dress,  had  greatly  im- 
pressed them  all  before  he  left  the  dressing-room, 
and  certainly  his  acting  had  been  unlike  anything 
the  boys  had  seen  other  boys  do.  The  subject  was 
talked  over  in  whispers,  so  that  Paul  should  not 
hear,  during  the  remainder  of  the  evening,  with  the 
result  that  that  very  night  at  least  six  boys  told 
other  boys  or  their  own '  parents,  in  the  strictest 
confidence,  of  course,  that  there  was  more  truth 


The  Beantassel  Benefit.  89 

than  make-believe  about  Paul  Grayson  as  an  In- 
dian. And  the  parents  told  the  same  story  to 
other  parents,  the  boys  told  it  to  other  boys,  and 
within  twenty -four  hours  Paul  Grayson  was  a  far 
more  interesting  mystery  than  before. 


90  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son  ? 


CHAPTER  VII. 

A  BEAUTIFUL  THEORY  RUINED. 

i 

:HEN  Benny  Mallow  went  to  bed  at  night, 
after  the  great  exhibition,  he  suddenly  re- 
membered that  he  had  forgotten  to  ask 
what  the  grand  total  of  the  receipts  for  the  Bean- 
tassel  family  had  been.  Under  ordinary  circum- 
stances he  would  have  got  out  of  bed,  dressed  him- 
self, and  scoured  the  town  for  full  information  be- 
fore he  slept.  On  this  particular  night,  however, 
he  did  not  give  the  subject  more  than  a  moment 
of  thought,  for  his  mind  was  full  of  greater  things. 
Paul  Grayson  an  Indian?  Why,  of  course:  how 
had  he  been  so  stupid  as  not  to  think  of  it  before  ? 
Paul  was  only  dark,  while  Indians  were  red,  but 
then  it  was  easy  enough  for  him  to  have  been  a 
half-breed;  Paul  was  very  straight,  as  Indians  al- 


A  Beautiful  Theory  Ruined.  91 

ways  were  in  books ;  Paul  was  a  splendid  shot  with 
a  rifle,  as  all  Indians  are;  Paul  had  no  parents — 
well,  the  tableau  made  by  Paul's  own  friend,  Mr. 
Morton,  who  knew  all  about  him,  explained  plainly 
enough  how  Indian  boys  came  to  be  without  fathers 
and  mothers. 

Even  going  to  sleep  did  not  rid  Benny  of  these 
thoughts.  He  saw  Paul  in  all  sorts  of  places  all 
through  the  night,  and  always  as  an  Indian.  At 
one  time  he  was  on  a  wild  horse,  galloping  madly 
at  a  wilder  buffalo;  then  he  was  practising  with 
bow  and  arrow  at  a  genuine  archery  target;  then 
he  stood  in  the  opening  of  a  tent  made  of  skins; 
then  he  lay  in  the  tall  grass,  rifle  in  hand,  awaiting 
some  deer  that  were  slowly  moving  toward  him. 
He  even  saw  Paul  tomahawk  and  scalp  a  white  boy 
of  his  own  size,  and  although  the  face  of  the  vic- 
tim was  that  of  Joe  Appleby,  the  hair  somehow  was 
long  enough  to  tie  around  the  belt  which  Paul,  like 
all  Indians  in  picture-books,  wore  for  the  express 
purpose  of  providing  properly  for  the  scalps  he  took. 


92  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son? 

So  fully  did  Benny's  dreams  take  possession  of 
him,  that,  although  he  had  been  awake  for  two  hours 
the  next  morning  before  he  met  Paul,  he  was  rather 
startled  and  considerably  disappointed  to  find  his 
friend  in  ordinary  dress,  without  a  sign  of  belt,  scalp, 
or  tomahawk  about  him.  Still,  of  course  Paul  was 
an  Indian,  and  Benny  promptly  determined  that  no 
one  should  beat  him  in  getting  information  about 
the  young  man's  earlier  life;  so  Benny  opened  con- 
versation abruptly  by  asking, "  Where  do  you  begin 
to  cut  when  you  want  to  take  a  man's  scalp  off?" 

"  Why,  who  are  you  going  to  scalp,  little  fellow  ?" 
asked  Paul. 

"Oh,  nobody,"  said  Benny,  in  confusion.  "Pd 
like  to  know,  that's  all." 

"I'm  afraid  you'll  have  to  ask  some  one  else, 
then,"  said  Paul,  with  a  laugh.  "  Try  me  on  some- 
thing easier." 

"Then  how  do  you  ride  a  wild  horse  without 
saddle  or  bridle  ?"  asked  Benny. 

"  Worse  and  worse,"  said  Paul.     "  See  here,  Ben- 


A  Beautiful  Theory  Ruined.  93 

ny,  have  you  been  reading  dime  novels,  and  made 
up  your  mind  to  go  West  ?" 

"Not  exactly,"  said  Benny;  "but,"  he  continued, 
"I  wouldn't  mind  going  West  if  I  had  some  good 
safe  fellow  to  go  with — some  one  who  has  been 
there  and  knows  all  about  it." 

"Well,  I  know  enough  about  it  to  tell  you  to 
stay  at  home,"  said  Paul. 

This  was  proof  enough,  thought  Benny;  so,  al- 
though he  was  aching  to  ask  Paul  many  other  ques- 
tions about  Indian  life,  he  hurried  off  to  assure  the 
other  boys  that  it  was  all  right — that  Paul  was  an 
Indian,  and  no  mistake.  The  consequence  was  that 
when  Paul  approached  the  school-house  half  of  the 
boys  advanced  slowly  to  meet  him,  and  then  they 
clustered  about  him,  and  he  became  conscious  of 
being  looked  at  even  more  intently  than  on  the 
day  of  his  first  appearance.  He  did  not  seem  at 
all  pleased  by  the  attention ;  he  looked  rather  an- 
gry, and  then  turned  pale;  finally  he  hurried  up- 
stairs into  the  school-room  and  whispered  something 


94  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son  ? 

to  the  teacher,  at  which  Mr.  Morton  shook  his  head 
and  patted  Paul  on  the  shoulder,  after  which  the 
boy  regained  his  ease  and  took  his  seat. 

But  at  recess  Ije  again  found  himself  the  centre 
of  a  crowd,  no  member  of  which  seemed  to  care  to 
begin  any  sort  of  game.  Paul  stopped  short,  looked 
around  him,  frowned,  and  asked,  "  Boys,  what  is  the 
matter  with  me  ?" 

"  Nothing,"  replied  Will  Palmer. 

"Then  what  are  you  all  crowding  around  me 
for?" 

No  one  answered  for  a  moment,  but  finally  Sam 
Wardwell  said,  "  We  want  you  to  tell  us  stories." 

"  Stories  about  Indians,"  explained  Ned  Johnston. 

Paul  laughed.  "You're  welcome  to  all  I  know," 
said  he ;  "  but  I  don't  think  they're  very  interesting. 
Really,  I  can't  remember  a  single  one  that's  worth 
telling." 

This  was  very  discouraging;  but  Canning  Forbes, 
who  was  so  smart  that,  although  he  was  only  four- 
teen years  of  age,  he  was  studying  mental  philoso- 


A  Beautiful  Theory  R^l^ned.  95 

phy,  whispered  to  Will  Palmer  that  people  never 
saw  anything  interesting  about  their  own  daily 
lives. 

"You  can  tell  us  something  about  birch  canoes, 
can't  you  ?"  asked  Ned  Johnston,  by  way  of  encour- 
agement. 

"Oh  yes,"  Paul  replied;  "they're  made  out  of 
bark,  with  hoops  and  strips  of  wood  inside,  to  give 
them  shape  and  make  them  strong." 

"  How  do  they  fasten  up  the  ends  ?"  asked  Ned. 

"  They  first  sew  or  tie  them  together  with  strings, 
and  then  they  put  pitch  over  the  seams  to  make 
them  water-tight." 

"Did  you  ever  see  the  Indians  race  in  birch 
canoes?"  asked  Sam. 

"Oh  yes,  often,"  Paul  replied;  "and  they  make 
fast  time  too,  I  can  tell  you." 

"  Did  you  ever  race  yourself?"  asked  Benny. 

"  No,"  said  Paul,  "  but  I  learned  to  paddle  a  ca- 
noe pretty  well.  I'd  rather  have  a  good  row-boat, 
though,  than  any  birch  I  ever  saw.  If  you  run  one 


96  Who  Was  Paul  Grayson? 

of  them  on  a  sharp  stone,  it  may  be  cut  open,  unless 
it's  pretty  new." 

"  How  do  the  Indians  kill  buffaloes  ?"  asked  Will 
Palmer. 

"Why,  just  as  white  men  do — they  shoot  them 
with  rifles.  Nearly  all  the  Indians  have  rifles  now- 
adays." 

*/ 

This  was  very  unromantic,  most  of  the  boys 
thought,  for  an  Indian  without  bows  and  arrows 
could  not  be  very  different  from  a  white  man. 
Still,  something  wonderful  would  undoubtedly  come 
before  Paul  was  done  talking. 

"Are  buffaloes  really  so  terrible -looking  as  the 
story-papers  say  ?"  asked  Bert  Sharp. 

"  Well,  they  don't  look  exactly  like  pets,"  said 
Paul.  "A  bull  buffalo,  in  the  winter  season,  when 
he  has  a  full  coat  of  hair,  looks  fiercer  than  a  lion." 

"Do  the  Indians  really  kill  or  torture  all  the 
white  people  they  catch  ?"  asked  Cauniog  Forbes. 

"  I  don't  know — I  suppose  so ;  but  perhaps  they're 
not  all  as  bad  as  some  white  people  say." 


A  Beautiful  Theory  Ruined.  99 

Canning  shook  his  head  encouragingly  at  Will 
Palmer:  evidently  this  young  Indian  had  a  manly 
spirit,  and  was  not  going  to  have  his  people  abused. 
There  was  a  moment  or  two  of  silence,  each  boy 
wondering  what  next  to  ask.  Finally,  Napoleon 
Nott  said, 

"  You're  a  chief's  son,  aren't  you  ?" 

"What?"  exclaimed  Paul,  so  sharply  that  Notty 
dodged  behind  Will  Palmer,  and  put  his  hand  to 
his  head  as  if  to  protect  his  scalp. 

"  I  meant,"  said  Notty,  tremblingly — "  I  meant  to 
ask  what  tribe  you  belonged  to." 

"I?  What  tribe?  Notty,  what  are  you  talking 
about?" 

Notty  did  not  answer;  so  Paul  looked  around  at 
the  other  boys,  but  they  also  were  silent. 

"Notty,"  said  Paul,  "what  on  earth  are  you 
thinking  about?  Do  you  imagine  I'm  an  In- 
dian?" 

"  I  thought  you  were,"  said  Notty,  very  meekly ; 
"  and,"  he  continued, "  so  did  all  the  other  boys." 


ioo  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son? 

"  Well,  that's  good,"  said  Paul,  laughing  heartily. 
"  What  made  you  think  so,  fellows  ?" 

"  Benny  told  us,"  explained  Ned. 

"Benny?"  exclaimed  Paul.  "What  put  that 
fancy  into  your  head  ?" 

"I — I  dreamed  it,"  said  Benny,  almost  ready  to 
cry  for  shame  and  disappointment 

"And  you  told  all  the  other  boys?" 

"  Yes,  I  believed  it ;  I  really  did,  or  I  never  would 
have  said  it." 

Then  Paul  laughed  again — a  long,  hearty  laugh 
it  was,  but  no  one  helped  him.  Most  of  the  boys 
felt  as  if  in  some  way  Paul  had  cheated  them.  As 
for  Ned  Johnston,  he  evidently  did  not  believe  Paul, 
for  he  began  to  ask  questions. 

"If  you're  not  an  Indian,  how  do  you  know  so 
much  about  a  birch  canoe  ?" 

"  Why,  I've  seen  dozens  of  them  in  Maine,  where 
I  used  to  live ;  the  Indians  make  them  there." 

"  Wild  Indians  ?"  asked  Ned,  and  all  the  boys  lis- 
tened eagerly  for  the  answer. 


A  Beautiful  Theory  Ruined.  101 

"No,"  said  Paul,  contemptuously;  "they're  the 
tamest  kind  of  tame  ones." 

This  was  dreadful,  yet  Ned  thought  he  would  try 
once  more.  "How  did  you  come  to  know  so  much 
about  buffaloes  ?"  he  asked. 

"  I  saw  two  in  Central  Park,  in  New  York,"  Paul 
replied.  "  Oh,  boys !  boys !  you're  dreadfully  sold." 

"  Say,  Paul,"  said  Benny,  edging  to  the  front,  and 
looking  appealingly  at  his  friend,  "  you've  been  away 
out  West,  anyhow,  haven't  you  ? — because  you  told 
me  you  knew  about  it."  Benny  awaited  the  answer 
with  fear  and  trembling,  for  he  felt  he  never  would 
hear  the  end  of  the  affair  if  he  did  not  get  some  help 
from  Paul. 

"  No,  I've  never  been  farther  West  than  Laketon," 
was  the  disheartening  reply.  "All  I  know  of  the 
West  I've  learned  from  books  and  newspapers." 

"  Dear  me !"  sighed  Benny ;  and  for  the  first  time 
in  his  life  he  wished  the  bell  would  ring,  and  give 
him  an  excuse  to  get  away.  Within  a  moment  his 
wish  was  gratified,  and  he  scampered  up-stairs  very 


IO2  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son  ? 

briskly,  but  not  before  Bert  Sharp  had  caught  up 
with  him,  and  called  him  "  Smarty,"  and  asked  him 
if  he  hadn't  some  more  dreams  that  he  could  go 
about  telling  as  truth.  Poor  Benny's  only  consola- 
tion, as  he  took  his  seat,  was  that  Notty  had  been 
the  first  to  suggest  the  Indian  theory,  and  he  ought 
therefore  to  bear  a  part  of  whatever  abuse  might 
come  of  the  mistake. 

At  any  rate,  he  had  learned  that  Paul  had  been  in 
Maine  and  New  York ;  certainly  that  was  more  than 
he  had  known  an  hour  before. 


Dared.  103 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

DARED. 

'OR  a  day  or  two  after  the  terrible  collapse 
of  the  Indian  theory  Paul  Gray  son  kept  him- 
self  aloof  from  the  other  boys  to  such  an  ex- 
tent that  he  made  them  feel  very  uncomfortable. 
Benny,  in  particular,  was  made  most  miserable  by 
such  treatment  from  Paul,  for  Benny  was  not  happy 
unless  he  could  talk  a  great  deal;  and  as  he  could 
not  even  be  near  the  other  boys  without  being  re- 
proached for  his  untruthful  Indian  story,  the  cool- 
ness of  Paul  reduced  him  to  the  necessity  of  doing 
all  his  talking  at  home,  where  he  really  could  not 
spend  time  enough  to  tell  all  that  was  on  his  mind. 

Besides,  there  were  several  darling  topics  on  which 
Benny's  mother  and  sister,  although  they  loved  the 
boy  dearly,  never  would  exhibit  any  interest.  Ben- 


IO4  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son? 

ny  had  lately  learned,  after  months  of  wearisome 
practice  in  Sam  Ward  well's  barn,  that  peculiar  gym- 
nastic somersault  known  and  highly  esteemed  among 
boys  of  a  certain  age  as  "  skinning  the  cat,"  and 
he  was  dying  to  have  some  one  see  him  do  it,  and 
praise  him  for  his  skill.  But  when  he  proposed  to 
do  it  in  the  house,  from  the  top  of  one  of  the  door 
frames,  his  mother  called  him  inhuman,  and  his  sis- 
ter said  he  was  disgusting,  the  instant  they  heard  the 
name  of  the  trick ;  and  although  Benny  finally  made 
them  understand  that  cats  had  really  nothing  to  do 
with  the  trick,  and  that  if  he  should  ever  want  the 
skin  taken  off  a  real  cat  he  would  not  do  the  work 
himself,  not  even  for  the  best  fishing-rod  in  town,  he 
was  still  as  far  from  succeeding  as  ever;  for  when  he 
afterward  explained  just  what  the  trick  consisted  in, 
his  mother  told  him  that  he  was  her  only  boy,  and 
while  she  liked  to  see  him  amuse  himself,  she  never 
would  consent  to  stand  still  and  look  at  him  while 
he  was  attempting  to  break  his  blessed  little  neck. 
And  how  unsatisfactory  his  sister  was  when  con- 


Dared.  105 

suited  about  fish  bait !  In  marbles  she  had  been 
known  to  exhibit  some  interest,  but  a  boy  could  not 
always  talk  about  marbles.  When  Benny  explained 
how  different  kinds  of  Iiv7e  bait  kicked  while  on  the 
hook,  and  asked  her  to  think  of  some  new  kind  of 
bug  or  insect  that  he  could  try  on  the  big  trout  that 
had  learned  to  escape  trouble  by  letting  alone  the 
insects  already  used  to  hide  hooks  with,  she  told 
him  that  she  didn't  know  anything  about  it,  and, 
what  was  more,  she  didn't  care  to,  and  she  didn't 
think  her  brother  was  a  very  nice  boy  to  care  for 
such  dirty  things  himself. 

The  change  in  the  relations  of  the  boys  with  Paul 
did  not  escape  Mr.  Morton's  eyes;  and  when  he 
questioned  his  newest  pupil,  and  learned  the  cause, 
he  made  an  excuse  to  send  Paul  home  for  something, 
and  then  told  the  boys  that  to  pry  into  the  affairs 
of  other  people  was  most  unmannerly,  and  that  he 
thought  Paul  had  been  too  good  a  fellow  to  deserve 
such  treatment  at  the  hands  of  his  companions.  The 
boys  admitted  to  themselves  that  they  thought  so 


io6  *     Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son? 

too;  and  when  next  they  were  out-of-doors  together 
most  of  them  agreed  with  each  other  that  there 
should  be  no  more  questioning  of  Paul  Grayson 
about  himself.  Still,  Sam  Wardwell  correctly  ex- 
pressed the  sentiment  of  the  entire  school  when  he 
said  he  hoped  that  Paul  would  soon  think  to  tell 
without  being  asked,  because  it  was  certain  that 
there  was  something  wonderful  about  him ;  boys 
were  not  usually  as  cool,  strong,  good-natured,  fear- 
less, and  sensible  as  he. 

Pleasant  relations  were  soon  restored  between  the 
boys,  but  there  was  not  as  much  playing  in  the 
school-yard  as  before,  for  the  weather  had  become 
very  hot ;  so  the  usual  diversion  of  the  boys  was  to 
sit  in  a  row  on  the  lower  rail  of  the  shady  side  of 
the  school-yard  fence,  and  tell  stories,  or  agree  upon 
what  to  do  when  the  evening  became  cooler.  Paul 
Grayson  occasionally  begged  for  a  game  of  ball ;  he 
could  not  bear  to  be  so  lazy,  he  said,  even  if  the  sun 
did  shine  hotly.  But  the  boys  could  seldom  agree 
with  him  to  the  extent  of  playing  on  the  shadeless 


Dared.  107 

ball-ground ;  so  after  dismissal  in  the  afternoon  Paul 
used  to  go  alone  to  the  ball-ground  behind  the  court- 
house, and  practise  running,  hopping,  jumping,  and 
tossing  a  heavy  stone,  until  some  of  the  boys,  not 
having  promised  to  abstain  from  talking  with  each 
other  about  Paul,  wondered  if  their  mysterious  friend 
might  not  be  the  son  of  some  great  clown,  or  circus 
rider,  or  trapeze  performer,  or  something  of  the  sort. 
Paul's  exercises  seemed  to  give  a  great  deal  of  en- 
tertainment to  the  prisoners  in  the  jail,  for  some  of 
them  were  always  at  the  large  barred  window,  and 
the  counterfeiter  was  sure  to  be  at  the  small  one 
the  moment  he  heard  Paul  come  whistling  by ;  and 
well  he  might,  for  that  cell,  lighted  only  by  a  single 
very  small  window,  must  have  been  a  dismal  place 
to  spend  whole  days  in. 

From  occasionally  looking  at  the  prisoners  from 
the  play-ground  Paul  finally  came  to  stare  at  them 
for  several  minutes  at  a  time.  The  other  boys  could 
not  see  what  there  could  be  about  such  a  lot  of  bad 
men  to  interest  a  fine  fellow  like  Paul ;  but  Canning 


io8  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son? 

Forbes  explained  that  perhaps  the  spectacle  would 
be  interesting  to  them  too  if  they  were  strangers, 
and  had  not  seen  the  prisoners  in  every -day  life, 
and  known  what  a  common,  stupid,  uninteresting 
set  they  were.  All  of  the  boys,  Canning  reminded 
them,  had  been  full  of  curiosity  about  the  counter- 
feiter when  he  had  first  been  put  into  the  jail ;  that, 
he  explained,  was  because  the  man  was  a  stranger, 
and  no  one  of  them  knew  a  thing  about  him.  Paul 
was  in  exactly  the  same  condition  about  the  other 
prisoners,  and  the  counterfeiter  too. 

The  explanation  was  satisfactory,  but  Paul's  in- 
terest in  the  prisoners  was  not,  for  all  the  time  he 
spent  staring  at  the  side  of  the  jail  might  otherwise 
have  been  spent  with  them,  all  of  whom,  excepting 
perhaps  Joe  Appleby,  felt  that  they  never  could  see 
enough  of  Paul.  Some  of  them  were  shrewd  enough 
to  reason  that  if  Paul  could  be  made  to  understand 
what  a  miserable  set  those  jail-birds  really  were,  he 
would  soon  cease  to  have  any  interest  in  them;  so 
they  made  various  excuses  to  talk  about  the  prison- 


Dared.  109 

ers  by  name,  and  tell  what  mean  and  dishonest  and 
disgraceful  things  they  did. 

But  somehow  the  scheme  did  not  work;  Paul 
himself  talked  about  the  prisoners,  and  he  remind- 
ed the  boys  that  some  of  those  men  had  wives  who 
were  being  unhappy  about  them ;  and  others,  par- 
ticularly the  younger  ones,  were  keeping  loving 
mothers  in  misery;  and  perhaps  some  of  them 
had  children  that  were  suffering,  even  starving,  be- 
cause their  fathers  were  in  jail.  How  could  any 
fellow  help  being  curious  about  men,  asked  Paul, 
whose  condition  put  such  stories  into  a  man's 
mind  ? 

"  Perhaps,  too,"  Paul  argued,  "  some  of  those  men 
are  not  as  bad  as  they  seem.  Every  man  has  a  lit- 
tle good  of  some  sort  in  him ;  and  although  he  is  to 
blame  for  not  letting  it,  instead  of  his  wrong  thoughts, 
manage  him,  perhaps  some  day  he  may  change.  I 
can't  help  wishing  so  about  all  of  those  fellows  in 
the  jail,  and,  what  is  more,  I  wouldn't  help  it  if  I 
could — would  you  ?" 


no  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son? 

No,  they  wouldn't,  the  boys  thought;  still,  they 
thought  also,  although  no  one  felt  exactly  like  saying 
it  aloud,  that  boys  at  Mr.  Morton's  school  had  some 
good  in  them,  and  were  a  great  deal  surer  to  appre- 
ciate the  thoughtful  tendencies  of  a  good  fellow  than 
a  lot  of  worthless  town  loafers  were,  to  say  nothing 
of  a  dreadful  counterfeiter. 

"  If  you  feel  that  way,"  said  Joe  Appleby,  some- 
what sneeringly,  after  the  crowd  had  been  silent  for 
two  or  three  moments,  "  why  don't  you  go  with  Mr. 
Morton  when  he  visits  the  prisoners?  I  would  do 
it  if  I  felt  as  you  do ;  I  would  think  it  very  wrong 
to  stay  away." 

Joe's  tone,  as  he  said  this,  was  so  absolutely  taunt- 
ing that  most  of  the  boys  expected  to  see  Paul  spring 
at  him  and  strike  him;  they  certainly  would  do  so 
themselves,  if  big  enough,  and  talked  to  in  that  way. 
But  Paul  merely  replied,  "I  don't  go,  because  he 
never  asked  me  to." 

"  Oh,  don't  let  that  stand  in  your  way,"  said  Joe, 
quickly;  "you  can  easily  do  the  asking  yourself. 


Dared.  1 1 1 

I'll  ask  for  you,  if  you  feel  delicate  about  putting  in 
your  own  word." 

At  this  the  boys  felt  sure  there  would  be  a  fight, 
but  to  their  great  surprise  Paul  sat  quietly  on  the 
rail,  and  replied,  "  I  should  be  much  obliged  if  you 
would ;  that  is,  if  you're  man  enough  to  own  that 
you  first  taunted  me  about  it." 

Joe  arose,  and  looked  as  proud  as  if  he  were  about 
to  lead  a  whole  army  to  certain  victory. 

"  I'll  do  it,"  said  he,  "  and  right  away,  too." 

"  And  I,"  said  Canning  Forbes,  "  will  go  along  to 
see  that  you  tell  the  story  correctly,  and  do  full  jus- 
tice to  Grayson." 

Joe  scowled  terribly  at  this,  but  Canning,  although 
a  very  quiet  fellow,  had  such  a  determined  way  in 
everything  he  undertook,  that  Joe  knew  it  was  use- 
Jess  to  remonstrate,  so  he  strode  sullenly  along,  with 
Canning  at  his  side.  The  other  boys  looked  for  a 
moment  in  utter  astonishment ;  then,  as  with  one 
accord,  all  but  Paul  sprung  to  their  feet  and  followed. 

Mr.  Morton  was   astonished  at  the  irruption,  as 


1 1 2  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son  ? 

his  bell  had  not  been  sounded;  but  he  listened  to 
Joe's  request  and  to  Canning's  statement,  which  was 
supported  by  fragments  volunteered  by  other  boys; 
then  he  replied,  "I  will  gladly  take  Paul  with  rne, 
but  am  sorry  that  the  newest  pupil  in  the  school 
should  be  the  first  to  express  a  kind  thought  about 
the  unfortunates  in  the  jail." 

Then  Joe  Appleby  hung  his  head,  and  Canning 
Forbes  did  likewise,  and  most  of  the  other  boys  fol- 
lowed their  example;  but  Benny  rushed  to  the  side 
window,  thrust  his  head  out,  and  shouted,  "  It's  all 
right,  Paul ;  he  says  you  can  go." 

Then  all  the  boys  laughed  at  Benny,  at  which 
Benny  blushed,  and  the  teacher  rung  his  bell,  which 
called  in  no  one  but  Paul.  Then  the  school  came  to 
order;  but  most  of  the  boys  blundered  over  their 
lessons  that  afternoon,  for  their  minds  were  full  of 
what  they  had  to  tell  to  boys  that  attended  other 
schools,  or  did  not  go  to  school  at  all. 

The  visit  of  Paul  to  the  prison  was  made  that 
very  afternoon,  and  before  night  nearly  every  family 


Dared.  113 

in  the  town  bad  heard  of  how  it  had  come  to  pass, 
and  determined  that  Paul  Gray  son  was  a  noble  fel- 
low, no  matter  how  much  mystery  there  might  be 
about  him.  Benny  Mallow,  having  learned  in  ad- 
vance that  the  visit  was  contemplated  —  for  Paul 
could  not  get  rid  of  him  after  school  except  by  tell- 
ing him — Benny  waited  at  a  corner  near  the  jail 
until  Paul  and  the  teacher  came  out.  He  hid  him- 
self for  a  moment  or  two,  so  that  Paul  would  not 
think  he  had  been  watching  him ;  then  he  hurried 
around  a  block,  intercepted  the  couple,  and  made 
some  excuse  to  stop  Paul  for  a  moment.  As  soon 
as  Mr.'Morton  had  gone  ahead  a  little  way,  Benny, 
with  his  great  blue  eyes  wider  open  than  ever,  asked, 
"How  was  it?" 

"  It  was  dreadful,"  said  Paul,  whose  eyes  were  red, 
as  if  he  had  been  crying. 

"  Then  you  won't  ever  go  again,  will  you  ?"  said 
Benny,  giving  his  friend's  hand  a  sympathetic 
squeeze. 

"Yes,  I  will,"  exclaimed  Paul,  so  sharply  that 

8 


114  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son? 

Benny  was  frightened.  He  looked  up  inquiringly, 
and  saw  Paul's  eyes  filled  with  tears.  "  I'll  go  again, 
and  often,  now  that  I've  been  teased  into  doing  it ; 
but,  Benny  Mallow,  if  you  tell  a  single  boy  that  I 
cried,  I'll  never  speak  to  you  again  in  this  world." 

"  I  won't — oh,  I  won't,"  said  Benny,  and  he  kept 
his  word — for  weeks. 


PAUL  QRAYSON  AND  BENNY  MALLOW. 


Benny's  Party.  1 1 7 


CHAPTER  IX. 

BENNY'S    PARTY. 

R  MORTON'S  school  closed  on  the  last 
day  of  June,  and  the  parents  of  the  pupils 
were  so  well  pleased  with  the  progress  their 
sons  had  made  that  almost  all  of  them  thanked  the 
teacher,  besides  paying  him,  and  they  hoped  that 
he  would  open  it  again  in  the  autumn.  Mr.  Morton 
thanked  the  gentlemen  in  return,  and  said  he  would 
think  about  it;  he  was  not  certain  that  he  could 
afford  to  begin  a  new  term  unless  more  pupils  were 
promised,  although  he  did  not  believe  the  entire 
county  could  supply  better  boys  than  those  he  had 
already  taught  at  Laketon. 

The  boys,  when  they  heard  this,  determined  that 
they  would  not  be  outdone  in  the  way  of  compli- 
ment, so  they  resolved,  at  a  full  meeting  held  in 


1 1 8  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son  ? 

Sain  Wardwell's  father's  barn,  that  Mr.  Morton  was 
a  brick,  and  the  class  would  prove  it  by  giving  him 
as  handsome  a  gold  watch-chain  as  could  be  bought 
by  a  contribution  of  fifty  cents  from  each  of  the 
twenty  •  three  boys.  Every  boy  paid  in  his  fifty 
cents,  although  some  of  them  had  to  part  with  spe- 
cial treasures  in  order  to'  get  the  money.  Benny 
Mallow  sacrificed  his  whole  collection  of  birds'  eggs, 
which  included  forty -seven  varieties,  after  having 
first  vainly  endeavored  to  raise  the  money  upon  two 
mole-skins,  his  swimming  tights,  and  a  very  large 
lion  that  he  had  spent  nearly  a  day  in  cutting  from 
a  menagerie  poster.  The  chain,  suitably  inscribed, 
was  formally  presented  in  a  neat  speech  by  Joe 
Appleby ;  Paul  Grayson  absolutely  refused  to  do  it, 
insisting  that  Joe  was  the  real  head  of  the  school ; 
indeed,  Paul  himself  asked  Joe  to  make  the  speech, 
and  from  that  time  forth  Joe  himself  pronounced 
Paul  a  royal  good  fellow,  and  even  introduced  him 
to  all  girls  of  his  acquaintance  who  wore  long 
dresses. 


Benny's  Party.  119 

For  at  least  a  month  after  school  closed  the  boys 
were  as  busy  at  one  sort  of  play  and  another  as  if 
they  had  a  great  deal  of  lost  time  to  make  up.  Get- 
ting ready  for  the  Fourth  of  July  consumed  nearly 
a  week,  and  getting  over  the  accidents  of  the  day 
took  a  week  more.  Some  of  the  boys  went  fishing 
every  day ;  others  tried  boating ;  two  or  three  made 
long  pedestrian  tours — or  started  on  them — and  a 
few  went  with  Mr.  Morton  and  Paul  on  short  min- 
eralogical  and  botanical  excursions. 

Then,  just  as  mere  sport  began  to  be  wearisome, 
August  came  in,  and  the  larger  fruits  of  all  sorts 
began  to  ripen.  Fruit  was  so  plenty  in  and  about 
Laketon  that  no  one  attached  special  value  to  it; 
a  respectable  boy  needed  only  to  ask  in  order  to 
get  all  he  could  eat,  so  boys  were  invited  to  each 
other's  gardens  to  try  early  apples  or  plums  or 
pears,  and  as  no  boy  was  exactly  sure  which  par- 
ticular fruit  or  variety  he  most  liked,  the  visits  were 
about  as  numerous  as  the  varieties.  Later  in  the 
month  the  peaches  ripened;  and  as  the  boy  who 


1 20  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son  ? 

could  not  eat  a  hatful  at  a  sitting  was  not  consid- 
ered very  much  of  a  fellow,  several  hours  of  every 
clear  day  were  consumed  by  attention  to  peach-trees. 

Besides  all  these  delightful  duties,  a  great  deal 
of  talking  had  to  be  done  about  the  coming  cold 
season.  Boys  who  had  spent  unsatisfactory  au- 
tumns and  winters  in  other  years  began  in  time 
to  trade  for  such  skates,  or  sleds,  or  game  bags,  or 
other  necessities  as  they  might  be  without,  and  the 
result  was  that  some  other  boys  who  traded  found 
themselves  in  a  very  bad  way  when  cold  weather 
came.  Between  all  the  occupations  named,  time 
flew  so  fast  that  September  and  the  beginning  of 
another  school  term  were  very  near  at  hand  before 
any  boy  had  half  finished  all  that  he  had  meant  to 
do  during  vacation. 

There  were  still  some  pleasant  things  to  look 
forward  to,  though :  court  would  sit  in  the  first 
week  of  September,  and  then  the  counterfeiter 
would  be  tried,  while  on  the  very  first  day  of  Sep- 
tember would  come  Benny  Mallow's  birthday  party 


Benny's  Party.  121 

— an  affair  that  every  year  was  looked  forward  to 
with  pleasure ;  for  Benny's  mother,  although  far  from 
rich,  was  very  proud  of  her  children,  and  always 
made  their  little  companies  as  pleasant  as  any  ever 
given  in  Laketon  for  young  people.  When  Benny's 
birthday  anniversary  arrived,  every  respectable  boy 
who  knew  him  was  sure  to  be  invited,  even  if  he 
had  shamefully  cheated  Benny  in  a  trade  a  week 
before,  and  Benny  generally  was  cheated  when  he 
traded  at  all,  for  whatever  thing  he  wanted  seemed 
so  immense  beside  what  he  had  to  offer  for  it,  that 
year  by  year  he  seemed  to  own  less  and  less. 

At  last  the  night  of  the  party  came,  and  even 
Joe  Appleby,  whose  own  birthday  parties  were 
quite  choice  affairs,  was  manly  enough  to  declare 
that  it  was  the  finest  thing  of  the  year.  The  house 
was  tastefully  dressed  with  flowers,  which  always 
grew  to  perfection  in  Mrs.  Mallow's  garden,  and  the 
lady  of  the  house  knew  just  how  to  use  them  to 
the  best  advantage.  Benny  and  his  sister  received 
the  guests;  and  although  Benny  was  barely  twelve 


122  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son  ? 

years  old  that  day,  and  rather  small  for  his  age,  he 
appeared  quite  graceful  and  nianly  in  his  new  Sun- 
day suit,  which  had  not,  like  the  new  suits  of  most 
of  the  Laketon  boys,  been  cut  with  a  view  to  his 
growing  within  the  year.  His  sister  Bessie  was 
only  a  month  or  two  beyond  her  tenth  birthday, 
but  in  white  muslin  and  blue  ribbons,  with  her 
flaxen  hair  in  a  long  heavy  braid  on  her  back,  and 
her  bright  blue  eyes  and  delicate  pink  cheeks,  she 
was  pretty  enough  to  distract  attention  from  some 
girls  who  wore  longer  dresses,  and,  indeed,  from 
several  girls  in  very  long  dresses,  who  had  been  in- 
vited out  of  respect  for  the  tastes  of  Joe  Appleby, 
Will  Palmer,  and  Paul  Grayson. 

Mrs.  Mallow  was  as  successful  at  entertaining 
young  people  as  she  was  in  dressing  her  children 
and  ornamenting  her  little  cottage.  She  had  pre- 
pared charades,  and  given  Bessie  a  lot  of  new  rid- 
dles to  propose,  and  she  herself  played  on  her  rather 
old  piano  some  airs  that  the  boys  enjoyed  far  more 
than  they  did  the  "  exercises  "  that  their  sisters  were 


Benny's  Party.  123 

continually  drumming.  Several  of  the  boys  were 
rather  disappointed  at  there  being  no  kissing  games, 
but  they  compromised  on  "choosing  partners;"  and 
as  there  were  some  guessing  tricks,  in  which  the 
boys  who  missed  had  each  to  select  a  girl,  and  re- 
tire to  the  hall  with  her  until  a  new  "guess"  was 
agreed  upon,  it  is  quite  probable  that  most  of  the 
boys  enjoyed  opportunities  for  kissing  their  partic- 
ular lady  friends  at  least  once  or  twice. 

As  for  the  supper,  a  month  passed  before  Sam 
Ward  well  could  think  of  it  without  his  mouth 
watering.  There  were  chicken  salad  and  three 
kinds  of  cake,  and  ice-cream  and  water  ices  and 
lemonade,  and  oranges  and  bananas  that  had  come 
all  the  way  from  New  York  in  a  box  by  themselves, 
and  there  were  mottoes  and  mixed  candies  and  figs 
and  raisins  and  English  walnuts,  while  so  many  of 
the  almonds  had  double  kernels  that  every  girl  in 
the  room  ate  at  least  two  philopenas,  and  therefore 
had  enough  to  busy  her  mind  for  a  day  in  deter- 
mining what  presents  she  would  claim. 


124  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son? 

But,  in  spite  of  a  well-supplied  table  and  forty  or 
fifty  appetites  that  never  had  been  known  to  fail, 
full  justice  was  not  done  to  that  supper,  for  while 
at  least  half  of  the  company  had  not  got  through 
with  the  cream  and  ices,  and  Sam  Wardwell  had 
only  had  time  to  taste  one  kind  of  cake  (having 
helped  himself  three  times  to  chicken  salad),  a  small 
colored  boy,  who  knew  by  experience  that  news- 
carrying  levels  all  ranks,  if  only  the  news  is  great 
enough,  knocked  at  the  door,  and  asked  for  Benny. 
While  the  door  stood  ajar,  and  Mrs.  Mallow  went 
in  search  of  her  boy,  the  spectacle  of  a  number  of 
other  boys  standing  in  the  hall  was  too  much  for 
the  colored  boy,  so  he  gasped, "  De  counterfeiter  done 
broke  out  ob  de  jail !" 

Then  there  was  a  time.  Two  or  three  of  the 
boys  abandoned  their  partners  at  once,  and  hurried 
to  the  door  to  ask  questions,  while  one  or  two  more 
seized  their  hats,  sneaked  toward  the  back  door, 
walked  leisurely  out,  as  if  they  merely  wished  to 
cool  off,  and  then  started  on  a  rapid  run  for  the  jail. 


Benny  s  Party.  127 

Benny  wished  to  follow  them — and  not  for  the  pur- 
pose of  bringing  them  back,  either — and  all  of  his 
mother's  reasoning  powers  and  authority  had  to  be 
exerted  to  keep  her  son  from  forsaking  his  guests. 
Strangest  of  all,  Paul  Grayson,  who  had  through- 
out the  evening  made  himself  so  agreeable  to  at 
least  half  a  dozen  of  the  young  ladies  that  he  was 
pronounced  just  too  splendid  for  anything,  had  been 
among  the  first  to  run  away !  Benny  said  he  never 
would  have  thought  it  of  Paul,  and  his  mother  said 
the  very  same  thing,  while  the  girls,  who  but  a  few 
moments  before  had  been  loud  in  his  praise,  now 
clustered  together,  with  very  red  cheeks,  and  agreed 
that  if  a  mean  old  counterfeiter  was  more  interest- 
ing than  a  Ipt  of  young  ladies,  why,  they  were  sure 
that  Mister  Paul  Grayson  was  entirely  welcome  to 
all  he  could  see  of  the  horrid  wretch. 

Still,  the  party  went  on,  after  a  fashion,  although 
some  of  the  girls  were  rather  absent-minded  for  a 
few  moments,  until  they  had  determined  what  par- 
ticularly cutting  speeches  they  would  make  to  their 


128  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son? 

beaux  when  next  they  met  them.  They  did  not 
have  long  to  wait,  for  soon  the  boys  came  straggling 
back,  Sam  Wardwell  being  the  first  to  arrive,  for, 
as  on  reaching  the  jail  Sam  could  learn  nothing, 
and  found  nothing  to  look  at  but  the  open  door 
of  the  empty  cell,  he  shrewdly  determined  that  there 
might  yet  be  time  to  get  some  more  ice-cream  if  he 
hurried  back.  Somehow  none  of  the  girls  abused 
him;  on  the  contrary,  they  seemed  so  anxious  to 
know  all  about  the  escape  that  Sam  was  almost 
sorry  that  he  had  not  remained  away  longer  and 
learned  more. 

Then  Ned  Johnston  returned.  He  had  been 
lucky  enough  to  meet  a  man  who  had  wanted  to 
be  deputy -sheriff  and  jail- keeper,  but  had  failed; 
he  told  Ned  that  the  jailer  had  stupidly  forgotten 
to  bolt  the  great  door,  after  having  examined  the 
inside  of  the  cell,  as  he  did  every  night  before  re- 
tiring, to  see  if  the  prisoner  had  been  attempting 
to  cut  through  the  walls.  The  prisoner  had  been 
smart  enough  to  listen,  and  to  notice  that  the  bolts 


Benny  s  Party.  129 

were  not  shot  nor  the  key  turned,  so  he  had  quietly 
walked  out ;  and  had  not  Mr.  Wardwell  met  him  on 
the  street,  and  recognized  him  in  spite  of  the  dark- 
ness, and  hurried  off  to  tell  the  sheriff,  no  one  would 
have  known  of  the  escape  until  morning.  There 
was  not  the  slightest  chance  of  catching  the  pris- 
oner again,  the  would-be  deputy  had  said  to  Ned ; 
there  wasn't  brains  enough  in  the  sheriff  and  all 
his  staff  to  get  the  better  of  a  smart  man;  but 
things  would  be  very  different  if  proper  men  were 
in  office. 

When  the  party  finally  broke  up,  several  boys 
were  still  missing;  but  as  their  absence  gave  sev- 
eral other  boys  the  chance  to  escort  two  girls  home 
instead  of  one,  these  faithful  beaux  determined  that 
they  had  not  lost  so  very  much  by  remaining,  after 
all. 

9 


1 30  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son  ? 


CHAPTER  X. 

RECAPTURED. 

N  the  morning  after  Benny  Mallow's  party 
hardly  a  boy  started  for  the  brook  or  the 
woods.  This  was  not  because  the  dissipation 
of  the  previous  night  had  made  them  over-weary,  or 
too  heavy  and  late  a  supper  had  induced  headaches, 
or  the  party  itself  had  to  be  talked  over.  Each  of 
these  reasons  might  have  kept  a  boy  or  two  at  home, 
but  the  real  cause  that  prevented  the  majority  go- 
ing about  their  usual  diversions  was  fear  of  meeting 
the  escaped  counterfeiter.  Where  the  information 
came  from  no  one  thought  to  inquire;  but  the  re- 
port was  circulated  among  the  boys  quite  early  in 
the  morning  that  the  criminal  was  armed  with  two 
heavy  revolvers  that  some  secret  confederate  had 
passed  through  the  window  to  him,  and  that  he 


Recaptured.  131 

would  on  no  account  allow  himself  to  be  captured 
alive. 

This  story  justified  the  stoutest-hearted  boy,  even 
if  he  owned  a  rifle,  in  preferring  to  keep  away  from 
any  and  all  places  in  which  such  a  person  might  hide ; 
but  the  story  seemed  afterward  to  have  been  only 
half  told,  for  as  it  passed  through  Napoleon  Nott's 
lips  a  bowie-knife,  a  sword-cane,  a  bottle  of  poison, 
and  a  long  piece  of  a  prison  chain  were  neatly  added 
to  the  bad  man's  armament ;  so  no  boy  felt  ashamed 
to  confess  to  any  other  boy  that  he  really  was  afraid 
to  venture  beyond  the  edge  of  the  town. 

"  You  can  never  tell  where  such  fellows  may  hide," 
said  Sam  Wardwell  to  several  boys  who  had  gath- 
ered at  the  school  wood -pile,  which  was  a  general 
rendezvous  for  boys  who  had  nothing  in  particular 
to  do.  "I've  read  in  the  police  reports  in  the  New 
York  paper  that  father  takes  of  policemen  finding 
thieves  and  murderers  and  other  bad  men  in  the 
queerest  kind  of  places.  They're  very  fond  of  hiding 
in  stables." 


132  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son? 

"Then  I  know  one  thing,"  said  Ned  Johnston, 
promptly — "our  hens  may  steal  nests  all  over  the 
hay-loft,  and  hatch  all  the  late  chickens  they  want 
to,  to  die  as  soon  as  the  frost  comes,  but  I  won't  go 
inside  of  our  barn  again  until  that  man  is  found." 

"  And  I'll  stay  out  of  our  stable,"  said  Bert  Sharp, 
"  though  it  is  fun  to  go  in  there  sometimes,  when  a 
fellow  hasn't  anything  else  to  do,  and  tickle  the 
horse's  flanks  to  see  him  kick." 

"  You  ought  to  be  kicked  yourself  for  doing  such 
a  mean  trick,"  said  Charlie  Gunter.  "Where  else 
do  they  hide,  Sam?" 

"  Oh,  all  sorts  of  places,"  said  Sam — "  sometimes 
inside  of  barrels.  And  just  think  of  it !  there's  at 
least  twenty  empty  barrels  in  the  yard  of  our  store, 
besides  a  great  big  hogshead  that  would  hold  six 
counterfeiters." 

"  Perhaps  he's  in  that  hogshead  now,  with  his 
confederate,"  suggested  Charlie  Gunter.  "  Can't  we 
all  get  on  the  roof  of  the  store  and  look  down  into 
it?" 


Recaptured.  133 

"I  won't  go,"  said  Ned  Johnston,  very  decidedly; 
"  they  might  shoot  up  at  us." 

"  One  fellow,"  continued  Sam,  "  was  found  buried 
just  under  the  top  of  the  ground ;  he  just  had  his 
nose  and  mouth  out  so  he  could  breathe,  but  he  had 
even  those  covered  with  some  grass  so  as  to  hide 
them." 

"  How  did  he  bury  himself?"  asked  Canning 
Forbes. 

"The  paper  didn't  say,"  answered  Sam.  "I  sup- 
pose his  pals  dug  the  hole  and  covered  him  up." 

"My!"  exclaimed  Benny  Mallow.  "I  won't  dare 
to  go  out  into  the  garden  to  gather  tomatoes  or  pull 
corn  for  mother." 

"Perhaps  he's  behind  that  very  fence,"  suggested 
Napoleon  Nott.  "I  had  a  book  that  told  about  a 
Frenchman  that  laid  so  close  against  a  fence  that  the 
police  walked  right  past  him  without  seeing  him, 
and  then  he  got  up  and  killed  them,  and  buried 
them,  and — " 

"  Keep  the  rest  for  to-morrow,  Notty,"  suggested 


1 34  Who  Was  Paul  Grayson  ? 

Canning  Forbes ;  "  but  put  plenty  of  salt  on,  so  it 
won't  spoil.  We've  got  as  much  of  it  as  we  can 
swallow  to-day." 

"I  wonder  why  Paul  don't  come  out?"  said  Will 
Palmer. 

"  He  isn't  at  home,"  said  Benny ;  "  and  Mr.  Morton 
is  very  much  worried  about  him,  too ;  but  I  told 
him  that  he  needn't  be  afraid ;  that  Paul  could  take 
care  of  himself  even  in  a  fight  with  a  counterfeiter." 

"  Good  for  you,  Benny !"  exclaimed  Will  Palmer. 
"If  Paul  only  had  his  rifle  with  him, I'd  back  him 
against  the  worst  character  in  the  world.  But  say, 
boys,  while  we're  lounging  about  here  the  fellow 
may  have  been  captured  and  brought  back  to  jail. 
Let's  go  up  and  see." 

All  that  could  be  learned,  when  the  jail  was  reach- 
ed, was  that  the  sheriff  had  sworn  in  ten  special  dep- 
uties, and  these,  with  the  sheriff  himself,  were  scour- 
ing the  town  and  the  adjacent  country.  The  sheriff 
had  wanted  to  make  a  deputy  of  Mr.  Morton,  for 
men  who  were  sure  they  could  recognize  the  prison- 


Recaptured.  135 

er  at  sight  were  very  scarce;  but  the  teacher  had 
excused  himself  by  saying  he  was  not  yet  legally  a 
citizen  of  Laketon.  Mr.  Wardwell  said  to  two  or 
three  gentlemen  that  this  was  undoubtedly  a  mere 
trick  to  cover  the  teacher's  foolish  tenderness  toward 
the  prisoner  whom  he  had  visited  so  often,  and  some 
of  the  gentlemen  said  that  they  shouldn't  wonder  if 
Mr.  Wardwell  was  right. 

When  dinner-time  came,  an  unforeseen  trouble  oc- 
curred to  the  boys :  they  could  not  go  in  a  crowd  to 
dinner  unless  some  boy  felt  like  inviting  the  crowd 
to  take  dinner  with  him,  and  no  boy  felt  justified  in 
doing  that  unless  he  first  asked  his  mother  whether 
she  had  enough  for  so  many;  so  the  party  divided, 
each  boy  retaining  his  trusty  stick,  and  going  with 
beating  heart  past  every  fence  and  wood-pile  behind 
which  he  could  not  see. 

Benny  Mallow  had  just  reached  home,  with  his 
heart  away  up  in  the  top  of  his  throat,  and  stuck 
there  so  tight  that  he  was  sure  he  could  not  swallow 
a  mouthful,  no  matter  how  nice  the  dinner  might  be, 


136  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son? 

when  he  saw,  crossing  his  street,  and  at  least  a  quar- 
ter of  a  mile  away,  three  people,  one  of  whom  he  was 
sure  must  be  Paul.  He  shaded  his  eyes,  looked  in- 
tently for  an  instant,  and  then  became  so  certain  that 
it  was  Paul,  whom  he  felt  himself  simply  dying  to 
see,  that  he  forgot  his  heart  and  his  dinner,  and  even 
the  danger  that  might  lurk  in  any  one  of  a  dozen 
places  by  the  way;  he  even  dropped  his  stick  as 
he  sped  away  as  fast  as  he  could  run.  By  the  time 
he  reached  the  place  at  which  he  had  seen  the  men 
the  party  was  two  squares  farther  to  the  left,  and 
Benny  was  panting  terribly;  but  as  he  now  knew 
that  it  was  indeed  Paul  whom  he  had  seen,  he  con- 
tinued to  run. 

After  gaining  considerably  on  the  trio,  however, 
Benny  suddenly  stopped,  for  he  noticed  that  one 
of  the  three  carried  a  pistol.  What  could  it  mean  ? 
Could  it  be  ? — why,  yes,  certainly ;  the  man  was  one 
of  the  deputy-sheriffs,  and  the  man  beside  whom  Paul 
was  walking  —  holding  by  one  arm,  in  fact,  as  if  he 
were  dragging  him  along — must  be  the  prisoner. 


PAUL  AND  THE  COUNTERFEITER. 


Recaptured.  139 

Benny  was  no  longer  afraid.  Paul,  he  was  sure, 
could  protect  him  against  at  least  six  desperate  crim- 
inals if  necessary,  even  without  the  help  of  a  deputy- 
sheriff  with  a  pistol.  "Mister,"  gasped  Benny,  as  he, 
overtook  the  officer,  who  walked  a  little  in  the  rear 
of  the  others,  "  did  —  Paul  —  oh,  my !  —  did  Paul — 
catch  the — the  prisoner?" 

"  No,  Benny,  no,"  exclaimed  Paul,  who  had  looked 
backward  on  hearing  Benny's  voice;  "I  hadn't  any- 
thing to  do  with  catching  him." 

"  He  would  have  done  it,  though ;  I'll  bet  a  hun- 
dred to  one  he  would,"  said  the  deputy,  "  if  he  had 
met  him  before  I  did.  I  don't  believe  that  boy 
knows  what  it  is  to  be  afraid." 

"  Of  course  he  doesn't,"  said  Benny,  proudly. 

"  Benny,"  said  Paul,  "  come  around  here  by  me ; 
don't  be  afraid." 

Benny  obeyed,  though  rather  fearfully,  for  the 
prisoner,  with  his  face  rather  dirty,  and  bleeding 
besides,  was  not  an  assuring  object  to  be  only  a 
boy's  width  away  from. 


140  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son? 

"  Benny,"  said  Paul,  "  don't  you  go  to  telling  the 
boys  that  I  had  any  share  in  catching — in  catching 
this  man.  You  know  how  such  stories  get  about  if 
there's  the  slightest  excuse  for  them." 

"  I  won't,"  said  Benny ;  "  but  I  can  tell  that  you 
helped  bring  him  in,  can't  I  ?  because  you're  doing 
it,  you  know." 

"Don't  say  that  either,"  Paul  replied.  "I'm  not 
helping  at  all — not  to  bring  him  in,  that  is.  The 
man  is  very  tired ;  he's  been  in  the  woods  all 
night,  lying  on  the  ground,  and  he's  had  no  break- 
fast; he  is  weak,  and  I'm  helping  him,  not  the 
sheriff.  Don't  you  see  how  the  poor  fellow  leans 
against  me  ?" 

"  Yes,"  said  Benny.  Then  he  dropped  his  voice  to 
a  whisper  and  said, "  Would  you  mind  telling  him 
that  I'm  sorry  for  him  too,  even  if  he  did — " 

"  Tell  him  yourself,"  said  Paul,  quickly.  "  And  go 
on  the  other  side  of  him  and  give  him  a  lift." 

Benny  obeyed  the  last  half  of  Paul's  instructions, 
but  the  strangeness  of  his  position  made  him  entirely 


Recaptured.  1 4 1 

forget  the  first  part,  and  he  was  wicked  enough  to 
wish  that,  as  they  reached  the  more  thickly  settled 
part  of  the  town,  people  who  saw  them  might  think, 
if  only  for  an  hour  or  two,  that  he  and  Paul,  two 
boys,  had  caught  the  dreadful  counterfeiter.  And 
his  wish  was  gratified  even  more  than  he  had  dared 
to  hope,  for  suddenly  they  came  face  to  face  with 
Ned  Johnston,  who  gave  them  just  one  wondering 
look,  and  then  flew  about  town  and  told  every  boy 
that  the  prisoner  had  been  caught,  and  that  Paul 
and  Benny  did  it. 

Arrived  at  the  jail,  the  deputy  pointed  with,  his 
pistol  to  the  still  open  door. 

"  One  moment,  please,"  said  the  prisoner.  "  Boys, 
I  am  very  much  obliged  to  you.  Will  you  shake 
hands?" 

He  put  out  his  hand  toward  Benny  as  he  spoke, 
and  Benny  took  it;  then  he  gave  a  hand  to  Paul, 
and  Paul  looked  him  straight  in  the  face  so  long 
that  Benny  was  sure  he  was  going  to  make  certain 
of  the  man's  looks  in  case  he  ever  broke  loose  again 


142  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son? 

and  had  to  be  followed.  Then  the  man  went  into 
his  cell,  and  Paul  stood  by  until  he  saw  the  three 
great  bolts  securely  shot,  after  which  he  and  Benny 
went  together  toward  their  homes. 


The  Trial.  143 


CHAPTER  XL 

THE  TRIAL. 

*HAT  do  you  think  was  the  counterfeiter's 
excuse  for  running  away?"  asked  Sam 
Wardwell  of  Canning  Forbes,  on  meeting 
him  at  the  Post-office,  to  which  both  boys  had  been 
sent  by  their  parents. 

"  I  give  it  up,"  said  Canning,  who  had  not  the 
slightest  taste  for  guessing. 

"He  said  he  would  have  come  back  and  given 
himself  up  after  court  had  met  and  adjourned,  but 
he  didn't  want  to  be  tried  now." 

"He  wanted  to  wait  for  some  new  evidence  in 
his  defence,  perhaps,"  suggested  Canning. 

"New  grandfather!"  ejaculated  Sam,  very  con- 
temptuously. "  He  wanted  to  stay  in  jail  here,  do- 
ing nothing,  for  the  next  six  months,  rather  than 


144  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son? 

go  to  the  Penitentiary  and  work  hard.  That's  what 
my  father  says." 

"Perhaps  your  father  is  right,"  said  Canning; 
"  but  what  does  he  think  of  Paul  ?" 

"  What  does  he  think  ?"  answered  Sam ;  "  why, 
just  what  everybody  else  thinks;  he  thinks  Paul 
is  the  greatest  boy  that  ever  was,  and  he  says  he 
wishes  I  would  be  just  like  him." 

"  Well,  why  don't  you  ?"  asked  Canning. 

"How  can  I?"  said  Sam,  in  an  aggrieved  tone. 
"  I  can't  do  just  as  I  please,  as  Paul  can,  and  I 
haven't  got  any  great  mystery  to  keep  me  up,  as 
everybody  knows  Paul  has." 

"Didn't  you  ever  have  a  great  mystery?"  asked 
Canning. 

"  Never  but  once,"  said  Sam ;  "  that  was  when  I 
hooked  a  big  package  of  loaf-sugar  out  of  father's 
store,  and  had  to  keep  finding  new  places  to  hide 
it  in  until  it  was  eaten  up." 

"I  suppose  that  mystery  helped  keep  you  up?" 
suggested  Canning. 


The  Trial.  145 

"  Well,  you  see —  Oh,  look !  there  comes  father ; 
I  suppose  he's  wondering  why  I  don't  bring  his  let- 
ters. Good-bye ;"  and  Sam  got  away  from  that  very 
provoking  question  as  fast  as  possible. 

As  for  the  other  boys,  they  simply  sat  on  the 
sidewalk  opposite  old  Mrs.  Bartle's,  and  worshipped 
the  house  from  which  their  hero  had  not  been  suc- 
cessfully coaxed  to  come  out.  In  spite  of  Paul's 
caution  to  Benny,  and  the  promises  that  were  made 
in  return,  the  deputy  had  talked  so  enthusiastically 
about  Paul  to  all  the  men  he  met,  that  the  story 
sped  about  town  that  Paul  had  done  as  much  to- 
ward recapturing  the  prisoner  as  the  officer  had. 
This  story  might  have  been  spoiled  had  Benny  acted 
according  to  the  spirit  of  his  promise,  but  the  little 
fellow  had  been  so  elated  by  the  looks  that  people 
gave  him,  as  he  marched  with  Paul  and  the  coun- 
terfeiter through  the  street,  that  he  could  not  bear 
to  deliberately  rob  himself  of  his  fame,  as  of  course 
he  would  do  as  soon  as  Paul's  story  had  been  told. 
So  Benny  refused  to  be  seen;  he  went  to  bed  very 

10 


146  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son? 

early,  and  before  breakfast  he  had  hidden  himself 
in  the  unused  attic  of  his  mother's  cottage,  where  he 
nursed  his  glory  until  he  felt  that  he  was  simply 
starving  for  something  to  eat. 

And  all  this  while  his  fictitious  valor  was  no- 
where in  the  eyes  of  the  populace,  for  Mr.  Morton 
himself  had  gone  out  immediately  after  breakfast, 
and  had  himself  given  Paul's  version  of  the  affair 
to  every  one,  besides  giving  Benny  a  fair  share  of 
the  credit  for  the  tender-heartedness  displayed  by 
the  two  boys  toward  the  captive,  so  that  when  Ben- 
ny finally  entered  the  world  again  he  found  he  had 
lost  some  hours  of  praise  to  which  he  was  honestly 
entitled.  As  for  Paul,  the  teacher  begged  every 
one  to  say  nothing  at  all  to  him  about  it.  The 
boy  was  somewhat  peculiar,  he  said ;  the  affair  had 
made  a  very  painful  impression  upon  him,  and  any 
one  who  really  admired  him  could  best  prove  it  by 
treating  him  just  as  before,  and  not  reminding  him 
in  any  way  of  Laketon's  most  famous  day. 

Mr.  Morton  had  not  yet  decided  whether  to  open 


The  Trial.  147 

his  school  again,  and  the  boys,  although  they  would 
have  been  sorry  to  have  him  go  away  from  Lake- 
ton,  hoped  he  would  not  decide  before  court  opened, 
for  now  that  the  counterfeiter  had  been  mixed  up 
in  some  way  with  two  of  their  own  number,  the 
boys  with  one  accord  determined  that  they  would 
have  to  attend  the  trial ;  indeed,  it  seemed  to  some 
of  them  that  the  trial  could  not  go  on  without 
them,  for  did  they  not  know  the  two  boys  who  had 
helped  bring  the  prisoner  back  from  the  woods? 
They  thought  they  did. 

When  the  day  for  the  trial  came,  and  the  sheriff 
opened  the  court-room,  the  doors  of  which  had  been 
kept  locked  because  of  the  immense  crowd  that 
threatened  to  fill  the  house  in  advance  of  the  hour 
for  the  session,  he  was  surprised  to  find  seventeen 
boys  in  the  front  seats  of  the  gallery.  On  question- 
ing them,  he  learned  that  most  of  them  had  entered 
through  a  window  before  sunrise,  and  that  two  had 
slept  in  the  gallery  all  night.  He  was  about  to 
remove  the  entire  party,  but  the  boys  begged  so 


148  Who  Was  Paul  Graysot^? 

hard  to  be  allowed  to  remain,  and  they  reminded 
him  so  earnestly  that  they  all  were  particular  friends 
of  Paul,  that  the  sheriff,  who  once  had  been  a  boy 
himself,  relented,  and  let  them  remain. 

It  was  about  six  in  the  afternoon,  according  to 
the  boys,  but  only  a  quarter  before  ten  by  the  court- 
house clock,  when  the  front  doors  were  opened  and 
the  crowd  poured  in.  Within  the  next  five  minutes 
any  boy  in  that  front  gallery  row  could  have  sold 
his  seat  for  a  dollar,  but  not  a  boy  flinched  from 
what  he  considered  a  public  duty,  although  every 
one  knew  just  what  to  do  with  a  dollar  if  he  could 
get  it.  Soon  the  lawyers  flocked  in  by  the  judge's 
door,  and  grouped  themselves  about  the  table  inside 
the  rail,  and  at  five  minutes  before  ten  his  honor 
the  judge  entered  and  took  his  seat.  Then  the 
sheriff  allowed  Mr.  Morton  and  Paul  to  enter  by 
the  judge's  door,  because  they  were  unable  to  get 
through  the  crowd  in  front.  At  sight  of  Paul  the 
whole  front  row  of  the  gallery  burst  into  a  storm 
of  hand-clapping. 


THE  SHERIFF  ENFORCES  ORDER. 


The  Trial.  151 

The  judge  rapped  vigorously  with  his  little  mal- 
let, and  exclaimed,  "  Mr.  Sheriff,  preserve  order.  The 
court  is  now  open." 

The  sheriff,  first  giving  chairs  in  the  lawyers'  cir- 
cle to  Paul  and  the  teacher,  because  there  were  no 
other  seats  vacant,  went  down  in  front  of  the  gal- 
lery, and  shouted  to  the  boys  that  if  they  made 
any  more  disturbance  he  would  throw  them  all  out 
of  the  window  and  break  their  heads  on  the  pave- 
ment below. 

No  lighter  threat  would  have  been  of  any  avail, 
for  a  more  restless  set  of  boys  than  they  were 
during  the  next  half-hour  never  was  seen.  It  seemed 
to  them  that  the  trial  never  would  begin;  the  law- 
yers talked  to  the  judge  about  all  sorts  of  things, 
and  the  judge  looked  over  papers  as  leisurely  as  if 
time  were  eternity ;  but  finally  his  honor  said, 

"Mr.  Sheriff,  bring  in  John  Doe." 

Every  one  in  the  front  row  of  the  gallery  stood 
up,  two  or  three  minutes  later,  as  Ned  Johnston, 
who  sat  where  he  could  look  through  the  open  door 


152  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son? 

by  which  the  judge  had  entered,  signalled  'that  the 
prisoner  was  coming.  Many  other  people  stood  up 
when  the  sheriff  and  the  prisoner  entered,  for  all 
were  curious  to  have  a  good  look  at  the  man  whom 
but  few  of  them  had  seen.  The  sheriff  placed  John 
Doe  in  the  prisoners'  box,  where,  to  the  great  disgust 
of  the  boys,  only  the  back  of  a  head  and  two  shoul- 
ders could  be  seen  from  the  gallery.  His  honor 
nodded  at  the  clerk,  and  the  clerk  arose,  cleared  his 
throat,  and  said, 

"  John  Doe,  stand  up." 

The  prisoner  obeyed ;  and  as  his  head  was  slight- 
ly turned,  so  as  to  face  the  clerk,  the  boys  had  a  fair 
view  of  it.  It  did  not  seem  a  bad  face ;  indeed,  it 
was  rather  handsome  and  pleasing,  although  there 
was  a  steady  twitching  of  the  lips  that  prevented  its 
looking  exactly  the  same  from  first  to  last. 

"John  Doe,"  said  the  clerk,  turning  over  some 
of  the  sheets  of  a  very  bulky  document  he  held  in 
his  hand,  "a  Grand -jury  appointed  by  this  Court 
has  found  a  true  bill  of  indictment  against  you  for 


The  Trial.  153 

.passing  counterfeit  money,  to  wit,  a  five-dollar  note 
purporting  to  have  been  issued  by  the  Founders' 
National  Bank  of  Mechanics'  Valley,  State  of  Penn- 
sylvania, the  same  note  having  been  offered  in  pay- 
ment for  goods  purchased  from  Samuel  Wardwell, 
a  merchant  doing  business  in  this  town  of  Laketon, 
and  for  passing  similar  bills  upon  other  persons 
herein  resident.  Are  you  guilty  or  not  guilty  ?" 

"  Guilty !"  answered  the  prisoner. 

A  sensation  ran  through  the  house,  and  at  least 
half  a  dozen  of  the  fifty  or  more  citizens  who  had 
hoped  to  be  drawn  on  the  jury  whispered  to  their 
neighbors  that  it  was  a  shameful  trick  to  appeal  to 
the  judge's  sympathy,  and  get  off  with  a  light  sen- 
tence; but  they  hoped  that  his  honor  would  not 
be  taken  in  by  any  such  hypocritical  nonsense. 

"John  Doe,"  said  his  honor,  solemnly,  "I  have 
been  informed  by  an  old  acquaintance  of  yours  of 
your  entire  history.  You  are  well  born  and  well 
bred;  you  had  promising  prospects  in  life,  and  a 
family  that  you  should  have  been  proud  of.  But 


154  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son? 

you  gambled;  you  fell  from  bad  to  worse;  and  a 
bullet  aimed  at  you  by  an  officer  of  the  law,  in  the 
discharge  of  his  duty,  struck  and  killed  your  loving, 
suffering  wife.  Such  of  your  family  as  remains  to 
you  would  honor  any  one,  even  the  highest  man  in 
the  land,  and  I  am  assured  that  you  are  sincerety 
desirous  of  forsaking  evil  courses  and  devoting  your 
life  to  this  —  family.  Old  friends,  classmates  of 
yours,  who  are  held  in  high  respect  wherever  they 
are  known,  are  ready  and  willing  to  assist  you  to 
regain  your  lost  manhood;  so,  in  consideration  of 
your  plea,  your  professions  of  penitence,  and  the 
responsibilities  which  your  misdeeds  have  increased 
instead  of  lessened,  I  sentence  you  to  confinement  in 
the  county  jail  for  the  shortest  period  allowed  by 
the  law  covering  your  offence,  to  wit,  six  months. 
Sheriff,  remove  the  prisoner." 

The  prisoner  bowed  to  the  judge,  and  then  looked 
toward  Mr.  Morton  and  Paul.  He  tried  hard  to 
preserve  his  composure  as  the  sheriff  led  him  through 
the  lawyers'  circle  and  toward  the  judge's  door,  but 


FATHER  !'; 


The  Trial.  157 

somehow  his  eyes  filled  with  tears.     Perhaps  this 
was  the  reason  that  Paul,  in  spite  of  Mr.  Morton's 
hand  on  his  arm,  sprung  from  his  chair,  threw  his 
arms  around  the  prisoner's  neck,  and  exclaimed, 
"Father!" 


158  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son? 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  END   OF  IT. 

O  Paul  Grayson's  secret  was  out  at  last, 
and  now  the  boys  wished  there  never  had 
been  any  secret  at  all. 
"  I've  had  lots  of  fun  trying  to  puzzle  it  out,"  said 
Ned  Johnston  to  Napoleon  Nott  on  the  afternoon  of 
the  day  of  the  trial,  "  but  now  I  wish  that  I  hadn't. 
Think  of  poor  Paul !" 

"  I  wish  he  had  been  a  prince  in  exile,"  said  Napo- 
leon Nott, "  for  then  he  wouldn't  have  had  a  chance 
to  tell  on  himself.  Princes'  sons  never  have  their 
fathers  tried  for  passing  counterfeit  money.  But  I'll 
tell  you  what;  the  way  that  Paul  looked  when  he 
said  'Father!'  that  day  was  just  like  a  picture  in 
a  book  I've  got,  named  '  Doomed  to  Death ;  or,  the 


The  End  of  It.  159 

Pirate's  Protege.'  I'll  bring  it  to  school  some  day 
and  show  it  to  you  all." 

"  I'll  break  every  bone  in  your  body  if  you  do," 
said  Will  Palmer. 

Notty  suddenly  remembered  that  his  mother  had 
sent  him  to  the  market  to  order  something,  so  he 
hurried  away  from  society  that  he  had  mistakenly 
supposed  might  be  congenial,  while  Ned  Johnston 
made  the  round  of  the  residences  of  the  various  boys 
who  had  been  at  school  with  Paul.  The  end  of  it 
all  was  that  the  entire  school  met  in  the  school-yard 
that  evening  after  supper  for  the  purpose  of  formally 
drafting  resolutions  of  sympathy.  Condolence  also 
was  suggested  by  Sam  Ward  well,  but  Canning 
Forbes  said  that  the  meeting  should  not  make  a 
fool  of  itself  if  he  could  prevent  it. 

If  the  roll  of  Mr.  Morton's  school  had  been  called 
that  evening  at  that  meeting,  not  a  single  absentee 
would  have  been  reported.  Even  Charlie  Gunter, 
who  had  begun  half  an  hour  before  to  shake  with 
a  chill,  was  present ;  and  although  his  remarks  were 


1 60  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son  ? 

somewhat  jerky,  and  his  sentences  bitten  all  to  pieces 
by  his  chattering  teeth,  he  spoke  so  feelingly  that 
no  one  manifested  the  slightest  inclination  to  laugh. 

It  had  been  intended  that  the  meeting  should  be 
organized  in  as  grand  style  as  any  town -meeting 
to  consider  the  dog-tax  question  had  ever  been,  but 
somehow  there  was  a  general  unloosening  of  tongues, 
and  no  one  thought  to  move  that  the  assemblage 
should  be  called  to  order. 

"  It's  easy  enough  now  to  see  why  Paul  played  so 
splendidly  in  that  tableau  of  '  Civilization,' "  said 
Will  Palmer. 

"  Yes,  indeed,  it  is,"  said  Canning  Forbes ;  "  and 
easy,  too,  to  understand  why  he  fought  so  hard 
against  taking  the  part  when  every  one  asked  him 
to  do  it." 

"No  wonder  he  wasn't  afraid  to  walk  beside  the 
prisoner  after  the  deputy-sheriff  had  captured  him," 
said  Sam  Wardwell.  "I  don't  believe  I'd  have 
been  afraid  myself,  if  my  father  had  been  the  coun- 
terfeiter. And  say,  Mr.  Morton  came  into  the  store 


The  End  of  It.  163 

this  morning  and  offered  father  a  five-dollar  bill  to 
make  up  his  loss  by  the  bad  bill  that  Paul's  father 
passed  on  him,  and  what  do  you  think  father  said  ?" 

"  We  give  it  up,"  said  Canning  Forbes,  quickly. 
"Tell  us  what  it  was." 

"  Why,"  Sam  answered,  "  he  said  that  he  wouldn't 
touch  it  for  a  thousand  dollars,  and  if  ever  the  pris- 
oner needed  money  or  anything  during  his  six 
months,  all  he  needed  to  do  was  to  send  to  him. 
Father  was  telling  mother  about  the  whole  thing 
last  night  when  I  went  home,  and  when  I  went  in 
he  jumped  up  and  hugged  me  and  kissed  me.  He 
hasn't  done  that  before  since  I  was  a  little  boy." 

"Now  I  know  why  Paul  used  to  forget  his  game 
and  stare  at  the  jail  windows  so  hard,"  said  Benny 
Mallow. 

"Ye-es,"  chattered  Charlie  Gunter,  "and  why 
he — he  was  al-always  wh-wh-wh-whistling  when  he 
passed  the  jail." 

"  And  why  he  never  could  be  happy  unless  a  game 
of  ball  was  going  on  in  the  lot  by  the  jail,"  resumed 


1 64  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son  ? 

Benny.  "  If  I'd  only  known  all  about  it,  I  would 
have  sweated  to  death  on  the  hottest  day  of  the 
summer  rather  than  not  have  obliged  him." 

"  Some  of  the  girls  thought  it  was  very  unmanner- 
ly for  Paul  to  have  been  the  first  to  leave  Benny's 
party  the  night  of  the  escape,"  said  Will  Palmer. 
"I'm  going  to  call  specially  on  each  one  of  those 
girls  and  make  her  take  it  back." 

"  And  if  either  of  them  refuses,"  said  Sam  Ward- 
well,  "just  you  tell  me.  She  sha'n't  ever  eat  an- 
other philopena  with  me  while  she  lives ;  not  if  she 
lives  for  a  thousand  years." 

"  He  begged  me  to  tell  all  of  you  boys  that  he 
hadn't  anything  to  do  with  the  catching  of  the  pris- 
oner," confessed  Benny,  for  the  first  time.  "  I  wish 
I'd  gone  and  done  it  right  away !  Oh  dear ;  I  do 
think  I'm  the  very  wickedest  boy  that  ever  lived — 
except  Cain." 

"I  wonder  who  told  the  judge  so  much  about 
Paul's  father  ?"  asked  Ned  Johnston. 

"  Why,  Mr.  Morton,  of  course,"   replied   Canning 


The  End  of  It.  165 

Forbes.  "  Haven't  you  seen  through  that  yet  \  Mr. 
Morton  told  in  school  one  day,  you  know,  that  Paul 
was  the  son  of  an  old  friend  of  his." 

At  least  half  of  the  boys  had  not  put  the  two  ends 
of  this  thread  together  before,  but  they  all  admitted 
that  Canning  had  done  it  correctly. 

"  Certainly,"  said  Will  Palmer,  "  and  that  explains 
why  Mr.  Morton  was  so  frequent  in  his  visits  to  the 
prison." 

"  Yes,  and  why  Paul  felt  so  dreadful  after  lie  had 
been  there  the  first  time,"  said  Benny.  "It  just  used 
him  up  completely ;  you'd  hardly  have  thought  him 
the  same  boy." 

Mention  of  that  incident  recalled  to  the  boys  the 
manner  in  which  Paul  had  come  to  go  to  the  prison, 
so  one  after  another  looked  at  Joe  Appleby,  who 
had  not  yet  said  a  word,  but  Joe  did  not  seem  an- 
gry ;  on  the  contrary,  he  said, 

"  Boys,  of  course  I  didn't  know  how  what  I  said 
was  affecting  Paul,  but  I  know  now,  and  I'm  going 
to  apologize  to  him  the  first  chance  I  get.  I'm  going 


1 66  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son? 

to  ask  him  to  forgive  me,  or  to  take  it  out  of  me,  if 
he'd  rather ;  and,"  continued  Joe,  after  a  short  pause, 
"  I'm  not  going  to  wait  for  the  chance,  but  I'm  going 
to  make  it." 

"  Hurrah  for  Appleby  !"  shouted  Will  Palmer,  and 
as  three  cheers  were  given  Will  crossed  over  to  the 
big  boy  of  whom  he  had  long  been  jealous,  and 
shook  hands  with  him,  and  all  the  other  boys  un- 
derstood it ;  so  when  Canning  Forbes  cried,  "  Three 
cheers  for  Palmer !"  they  too  were  given  with  a  will. 

"I  want  to  make  a  suggestion,"  said  Canning 
Forbes,  when  the  cheering  had  ended.  "  We  came 
here  to  adopt  resolutions  for  Paul  Grayson,  but  I'm 
sure  he'd  be  better  pleased  if  we  would  say  nothing 
about  the  matter;  any  reference  to  it  would  be  cer- 
tain to  give  him  pain.  The  best  we  can  do  is  to 
treat  him  with  special  kindness  hereafter,  if  he  stays, 
and  never,  by  any  word  or  deed,  make  reference  to 
the  past.  If  there  is  any  one  who  insists  on  reso- 
lutions, let  him  adopt  them  for  himself  and  about 
himself.  In  spite  of  having  had  a  father  who  was 


The  End  of  It.  167 

a  gambler  and  a  criminal,  Paul  is  the  most  sensible, 
honest,  honorable,  pleasant  fellow  in  this  town.  Let 
each  one  of  us  make  a  resolution  that  if  a  boy  can 
become  what  Paul  is,  in  spite  of  such  dreadful  trou- 
ble, those  of  us  who  have  honest  fathers  and  happy 
homes  ought  to  do  at  least  as  well." 

"  I'll  do  that,"  said  Benny  Mallow,  "  right  straight 
away,  and  I'll  write  it  down  in  a  book  as  soon  as  I 
get  home,  so  as  to  be  sure  never  to  forget  it." 

"So  will  I,"  said  Napoleon  Nott.  "I'll  write  it 
on  the  first  page  of  'The  Exiled  Prince,'  so  I'll  be 
sure  to  see  it  often." 

Such  of  the  boys  as  did  not  agree  verbally  to 
Canning's  suggestion  seemed  to  be  making  the  reso- 
lution quietly,  and  the  meeting  soon  broke  up.  As 
Benny  started  for  home  it  suddenly  occurred  to  him 
that,  now  the  secret  was  out,  Paul  might  go  away ; 
he  certainly  would  if  Mr.  Morton  did  not  open 
school. 

This  was  too  dreadful  an  uncertainty  to  be  en- 
dured, so  Benny  hurried  to  old  Mrs.  Bartle's  and 


1 68  Who  Was  Paul  Gray  son  ? 

asked  to  see  the  teacher.  Mr.  Morton  quickly 
quieted -his  mind  by  saying  that  the  school  would 
continue  for  at  least  the  half-year  that  Paul's  father 
remained  in  the  jail.  Of  course  Paul  would  be  one 
of  the  class;  indeed,  Mr.  Morton  was  willing  that 
Benny  should  tell  every  one  that  the  only  reason  he 
had  opened  school  at  Laketon  at  all  was  his  desire 
to  be  near  the  old  friend  whom  he  could  not  desert 
in  his  trouble,  and  to  have  near  the  prisoner,  whose 
real  name  was  Paul  Gray,  the  son  for  whom,  since 
the  death  of  his  wife,  Paul  Gray  had  felt  an  affection 
that  Mr.  Morton  knew  would  make  a  good  man  of 
him  when  again  he  had  a  chance  to  start  in  the 
world. 

When  Paul  Gray's  term  of  imprisonment  expired 
he  and  Paul  went  away  together,  and  no  one  was  so 
unmannerly  as  to  ask  them  where  they  were  going. 
Some  of  the  people  of  the  town  talked  of  taking  up 
a  subscription  for  the  unfortunate  man,  but  Mr.  Mor- 
ton said  it  would  not  be  necessary,  as  Gray's  old 
friends  had  arranged  to  start  him  in  business.  All 


The  End  of  It.  169 

of  the  boys  were  as  sorry  to  part  with  Paul  as  if  the 
boy  had  been  going  to  his  grave,  particularly  because 
Canning  Forbes  had  reminded  them  that  it  would 
not  do  to  ask  him  to  write  to  them,  because  his  fa- 
ther would  prefer  that  no  one  who  had  known  his 
old  history  should  know  where  he  began  his  new 
life. 

But  every  one  begged  Paul's  picture,  which  pleased 
Paul  greatly ;  and  after  a  supper  given  expressly  in 
Paul's  honor  by  Joe  Appleby,  Canning  Forbes  arose 
and  presented  Paul  an  album  containing  the  por- 
traits of  all  the  members  of  the  old  class.  The  pict- 
ures were  not  remarkably  good,  having  been  done 
by  a  carpenter  who  sometimes  took  "tin -types" 
merely  to  oblige  people,  he  said,  but  the  album  was 
handsome,  having  been  ordered  from  New  York,  re- 
gardless of  expense,  by  Sam  Wardwell's  father,  and 
on  the  cover  was  the  inscription,  in  gold  letters, 
"  Don't  forget  us,  for  we.  can't  forget  you." 

THE    END. 


A    000042171     9 


